US-EU Photo: IC

The EU, French, German and British officials on Wednesday local time strongly condemned a US decision to impose travel restrictions on five European individuals, including former European Commissioner Thierry Breton, a move that analysts see as further deepening the rift in transatlantic relations.

Alleging their involvement in content censorship on US social media platforms, the US State Department on Tuesday issued visa restrictions on Breton, Imran Ahmed, a British citizen and chief executive of the US-based Center for Countering Digital Hate, Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon from the German non-profit organization HateAid, and Clare Melford, a co-founder of the Global Disinformation Index, according to the Xinhua. 

According to Associated Press, the Europeans, characterized by Secretary of State Marco Rubio as "radical" activists and "weaponized" nongovernmental organizations, fell afoul of a new visa policy announced in May to restrict the entry of foreigners deemed responsible for censorship of protected speech in the US. 

In response, the EU warned that it would act "swiftly and decisively" against the "unjustified" US visa ban on five Europeans, according to the Guardian.

In his X post on Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron described the US measures as "amount to intimidation and coercion aimed at undermining European digital sovereignty."

Germany's justice ministry said the two German campaigners had the government's "support and solidarity" and the visa bans were unacceptable, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.

A UK government spokesperson said on Wednesday that Britain is committed to upholding the right to free speech, Reuters reported on Wednesday, adding that "while every country has the right to set its own visa rules, we support the laws and institutions which are working to keep the internet free from the most harmful content."

The EU and the US have repeatedly clashed over technology regulation this year. According to a press release issued by the EU Commission on its website in April, EU found Apple and Meta both breached obligations under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), resulting in Apple and Meta fined with €500 million ($588 million) and €200 million ($235 million) respectively. 

On December 5, the EU issued its first non-compliance decision under the act, fining US social media X, 120 million euros (about US $141.6 million) for the deceptive design of its blue checkmark, a lack of transparency in its advertising repository, and failing to provide researchers with access to public data, Xinhua reported on Wednesday. 

According to Reuters, Breton was one of the architects of the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), legislation aimed at making the internet safer by requiring major technology companies to take stronger action against illegal content, including hate speech and child sexual abuse material. The law has reportedly angered the US, which has accused the EU of imposing "undue" restrictions on freedom of expression in its efforts to combat hateful speech, misinformation and disinformation, and argues that the DSA unfairly targets US technology companies and US citizens.

"Is a wind of McCarthyism blowing again? To our American friends: 'Censorship isn't where you think it is,'" Breton said in his X post on Wednesday.

By framing the issue as one of "free speech," Washington has elevated what was originally a regulatory and market dispute into a broader political and values-based confrontation, highlighting a deepening rift in the transatlantic ties, Cui Hongjian, a professor at the Academy of Regional and Global Governance at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told Global Times on Thursday.

The core of the dispute lies in the EU's view of its digital laws as tools to safeguard its digital sovereignty, Cui said. He noted that the US visa bans were highly targeted and effectively a retaliatory response to the EU's earlier large fines imposed on US tech companies such as X and Google. 

Under the "America First" logic, allies and non-allies are increasingly treated with little distinction, and Europe is no longer seen as a special case, Cui said.