Washington: The US will impose visa bans on foreign nationals it deems to be censoring Americans, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday, and he suggested the new policy could target officials regulating US tech companies.
Rubio did not name any specific instances of censorship. But US tech companies and the Trump administration have challenged US allies in Europe, alleging censorship of social media platforms, but restricting officials from visiting the US appeared to be an escalation by Washington.
Rubio said in a statement that a new visa restriction policy would apply to foreign nationals responsible for the censorship of protected expression in the US.
He said it was unacceptable for foreign officials to issue or threaten arrest warrants for social media posts made on US soil.
“It is similarly unacceptable for foreign officials to demand that American tech platforms adopt global content moderation policies or engage in censorship activity that reaches beyond their authority and into the United States,” Rubio said.
Some foreign officials have taken “flagrant censorship actions against US tech companies and US citizens and residents when they have no authority to do so,” Rubio said.
US social media companies like Facebook and Instagram parent Meta have said an EU content moderation law, the Digital Services Act, amounts to censorship of their platforms. The Trump-appointed chairman of the US Federal Communications Commission in March warned that the EU Digital Services Act excessively restricts freedom of expression.
EU officials have defended the law, which is meant to make the online environment safer and fairer by compelling tech giants to do more to tackle illegal content, including hate speech and child sexual abuse material.
In a social media post on Wednesday, Rubio added, “Whether in Latin America, Europe, or elsewhere, the days of passive treatment for those who work to undermine the rights of Americans are over.”
Rubio did not name specific countries or individuals that would be targeted. Brazil has clashed with the platform X, owned by Trump ally Elon Musk, over compliance with orders to take down accounts accused of spreading misinformation. The Trump administration has repeatedly called out European nations for supposed censorship of online content.
The post US to impose visa bans on foreign nationals it deems to be censoring Americans: Marco Rubio appeared first on Karachi News.