Former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton was also sanctioned.Image: keystone
The US government is imposing an entry ban on several people from Europe because of the alleged censorship of US platforms. Politicians and activists are also affected.
December 24, 2025, 04:30December 24, 2025, 04:30
The entry ban imposed by the US government due to alleged censorship of American online platforms affects, among others, the leaders of the German organization HateAid, which is committed to combating hate online. The two managing directors Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon are affected, as the US State Department announced on X.
Ballon and von Hodenberg responded to a request from the German Press Agency as follows:
«We are not surprised. It is an act of repression by a government that is increasingly disregarding the rule of law and trying to use all means to silence its critics.
The two managing directors of HateAid – a non-profit organization that has been committed to combating hatred and hate speech online for years – see the actions of the government of US President Donald Trump as having reached a new level of escalation:
“The US government is questioning European sovereignty.”
She is trying by all means to prevent US companies from having to comply with applicable law in Europe.
“We will not allow ourselves to be intimidated by a government that exploits accusations of censorship to silence those who stand up for human rights and freedom of expression,” the statement says. HateAid will continue its work as an advisory center with all its might. “We express our solidarity with all other affected people and everyone who now has to fear similar measures.”
Von Hodenberg was awarded the German Federal Order of Merit in October for her work against digital violence. At the time, it was said that von Hodenberg had done pioneering work by founding HateAid in 2018: the organization was the first nationwide advice center that people could turn to in cases of online violence. HateAid offers help if someone is confronted with offensive and discriminatory statements online.
US sanctions affect five people
The entry bans imposed by the US government also affect the former French EU Commissioner Thierry Breton, who is considered the architect of the EU’s Digital Services Act, which regulates online platforms. The US State Department also named two other people affected: the founder of the Center for Countering Digital Hate organization, Imran Ahmed, and the founder of the Global Disinformation Index organization, Clare Melford – both of whom campaign against online hate and disinformation.
The ministry did not immediately release the names of the five affected. Initially, there was only talk of “radical activists” and “instrumentalized” non-governmental organizations that were pushing for censorship measures by foreign states. They are said to have tried to force US platforms to suppress “American viewpoints” that they rejected.
The affected Thierry Breton compared the sanctions announced by the US State Department against him and four other people with the “witch hunt” against alleged communists during the McCarthy era in the USA. On Platform X he wrote:
“To our American friends: Censorship is not happening where you think it is.”
The French government also sharply criticized the US actions. She recalled that the European Union’s Digital Services Act had been passed by the EU Parliament and all member states with a large democratic majority so that no legal vacuum would arise on the Internet. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot emphasized that the law does not even apply in the USA. He also wrote on X:
“The peoples of Europe are free and sovereign and do not allow others to impose rules for their digital space.”
Jean-Noël Barrot criticizes the US sanctions.Image: keystone
US Secretary of State criticizes “ideologues in Europe”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had previously justified the sanctions on X:
“For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to force American platforms to punish American positions they don’t like.”
Under President Donald Trump, the US government will no longer tolerate “exterritorial censorship” and will impose entry bans against “leading figures of the global censorship-industrial complex”. They are prepared to expand the list if there is no course correction.
Rubio and other US government officials have criticized alleged Internet censorship in Europe several times in the past. The background was a decision by the EU Commission according to which billionaire Elon Musk’s Platform X had to pay a fine of 120 million euros due to lack of transparency. The decision sparked strong reactions in the United States. Rubio spoke on X of an “attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments.” The days of online censorship for Americans are over.
(sda/dpa/con)