The State Department has sanctioned five European political figures from entering the United States, due to their involvement in the “global censorship-industrial complex.”
"The State Department is taking decisive action against five individuals who have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a press release on Tuesday. "These radical activists and weaponized NGOs have advanced censorship crackdowns by foreign states—in each case targeting American speakers and American companies. As such, I have determined that their entry, presence, or activities in the United States have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States."
He continued:
President Trump has been clear that his America First foreign policy rejects violations of American sovereignty. Extraterritorial overreach by foreign censors targeting American speech is no exception. The State Department stands ready and willing to expand today’s list if other foreign actors do not reverse course.
He later posted another statement on X.
“For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose,” Rubio wrote. “The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship. Today, [the State Department] will take steps to bar leading figures of the global censorship-industrial complex from entering the United States.”
“We stand ready and willing to expand this list if others do not reverse course," he added.
For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose. The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship.
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) December 23, 2025
Today, @StateDept will take steps to…
The five Europeans barred from entering the United States include former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton, Imran Ahmed, the chief executive of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, Clare Melford, the head of the Global Disinformation Index, and Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, senior leaders at the Germany-based HateAid, a group that "stands up against digital violence."
“Our message is clear: if you spend your career fomenting censorship of American speech, you’re unwelcome on American soil,” Sarah Rogers, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, posted on X. “Our targets are foreign, but you’ll notice that some collaborated with U.S. bureaucrats on Murthy-style speech suppression. Don’t worry: we’re pursuing transparency, truth, and reconciliation at the [State Department] too."
Today, the United States issued SANCTIONS reinforcing the "red line" I invoked on @GBNEWS. Namely: extraterritorial censorship of Americans.
— Under Secretary of State Sarah B. Rogers (@UnderSecPD) December 23, 2025
Today's sanctions target the censorship-NGO ecosystem.🧵 https://t.co/kaefDo11uh
Rogers referenced the 2024 US Supreme Court case Murthy v. Missouri, which sought to challenge federal officials' communications with social media companies. The lawsuit claimed that Biden administration officials, from the White House to the FBI, violated free speech by urging platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to moderate or remove "misinformation" during the pandemic and 2020 election.
This comes as several European countries have faced backlash for aggressively prosecuting online “hate speech,” while allowing serious criminals and illegal immigrants who commit violent crimes to receive comparatively lenient sentences. In parts of Europe, people have been arrested for praying outside abortion clinics or for using slurs against gay people. In one particularly egregious case, a woman received a harsher sentence for calling her rapist a slur than the rapist received for the assault itself.