The United States sanctioned five European citizens for “coercing” social networks, an action to which the president of the European Commission (EC), Ursula Von der Leyen, responded this Wednesday that freedom of expression is the basis of European democracy.
“Freedom of expression is the basis of our strong and vibrant European democracy. We are proud of it. We will protect it. Because the EC is the guardian of our values,” said the European leader in a publication on her X social network account.
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.
Today, @StateDept will take steps to…
—Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) December 23, 2025
The statements were made after the Trump Administration banned five European citizens from entering the United States, whom it accuses of “coercing” social networks to censor American voices, as announced on Tuesday by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Among those sanctioned is the former European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton (2019-2024), promoter of regulations to limit disinformation on platforms such as X, Meta and TikTok.
British activist Imran Ahmed, executive director of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), an organization dedicated to combating hate and misinformation on the internet, as well as the directors of the German organization Hate Aid, Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon, were also limited, according to their own reports.
The EC emphasizes in its statement, cited by EFE, that freedom of expression is “a fundamental right in Europe and a fundamental value shared with the United States.”
He recalled that the European Union is an open, rules-based market, with the sovereign right to regulate economic activity in accordance with its democratic values and international commitments.
With this action, and according to European media such as The Country“The blackmail and pressure of the Donald Trump Administration on the European Union (EU) for the community technological rules that American platforms in Europe must comply with has escalated to an unprecedented level.”
