Rubio says US to refuse visas to officials over online 'censorship'
WASHINGTON: The United States will refuse visas to foreign officials who block Americans' social media posts, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday (May 28) in his latest crackdown.
Rubio - who himself has come under fire for removing US visas from activists who criticise Israel - said he was acting against "flagrant censorship actions" overseas against US tech firms.
He did not publicly name any official who would lose a visa under the new policy. But last week, he suggested to lawmakers that he was planning action against Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes, who has battled X owner Elon Musk to remove alleged disinformation.
The administration of President Donald Trump - himself a prolific and often confrontational social media user - has also sharply criticised allies Germany and Britain for restricting what the governments term hate speech.
Rubio said that the United States will begin to restrict visas to foreign nationals who are responsible for censorship of protected expression in the United States."
"It is unacceptable for foreign officials to issue or threaten arrest warrants on US citizens or US residents for social media posts on American platforms while physically present on US soil," Rubio said in a statement.
"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," he said.
"We will not tolerate encroachments upon American sovereignty, especially when such encroachments undermine the exercise of our fundamental right to free speech."
Rubio has said that he has revoked the US visas for thousands of people, largely students who have protested against Israel's offensive in Gaza.
Among the most visible cases has been Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University who had written an opinion piece in a student newspaper criticising the school's position on Gaza.
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