US Announces Visa Curbs Targeting Social Media ‘Censorship'
(Bloomberg) -- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced visa restrictions on foreign officials and other individuals who 'censor Americans,' including those who target American technology companies, as the Trump administration steps up a confrontation with other countries over their social media policies.
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Without giving specifics, Rubio cited instances of foreign governments censoring protected speech in the US, saying it was unacceptable for foreigners to 'issue or threaten arrest warrants on US citizens or US residents for social media posts on American platforms,' according to a statement on Wednesday.
It is unclear from the statement what prompted the move and whether it was directed at any particular official or country. In a social media post, however, Rubio alluded to Latin America and Europe in saying 'the days of passive treatment for those who work to undermine the rights of Americans are over.'
At the same time, an article posted on the State Department website on Tuesday singled out the European Union's Digital Services Act, alleging that it's being used to silence dissident voices.
'Independent regulators now police social media companies, including prominent American platforms like X, and threaten immense fines for non-compliance with their strict speech regulations,' according to the article, written by an official from the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.
President Donald Trump has sharply criticized the EU over its regulatory crackdown on some of the biggest US tech companies and threatened to strike back with penalties.
His administration is also at odds with a Brazilian Supreme Court justice, Alexandre de Moraes, who briefly banned access to Elon Musk's X and US video-sharing platform Rumble Inc.
Last week, Rubio told lawmakers that the US might impose sanctions on Moraes under the Magnitsky Act, which freezes the US assets of foreign officials accused of corruption and bans them from traveling to the country.
On Wednesday afternoon, Brazil's Supreme Court said in a statement that 'Moraes does not and has never had any assets, money, or property in the United States.'
--With assistance from Daniel Carvalho.
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