This Wednesday announced a new restriction to its visa policy. A day after he met while examining his social networks, the State Department has announced that the new veto will apply to the “foreign citizens responsible for censorship against protected freedom of expression in the United States” and some of his relatives. The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, pointed out that the measure could be applied to the high positions responsible for regulating in their countries to the US technological companies.
In a comment on the social network X, Rubio says that American citizens “have been fined, harassed or charges against them have been submitted for exercising their right to freedom of expression,” and maintains that foreigners who “undermine” that right “should not enjoy the privilege of traveling to our country.”
Rubio, whose administration has constantly complained about the regulatory measures in other countries, including the European Union, about the contents of social networks and technological companies in the United States, ensures that freedom of expression is “essential for the American way of life, a birth right over which foreign governments lack authority”.
“Foreigners who work to undermine the rights of Americans should not enjoy the privilege of traveling to our country. Whether in Latin America, Europe or any other place, the days of passive treatment for those who try to harm the rights of Americans have ended,” he adds.
To the announcement of Rubio on social networks a statement of the State Department has been added in similar terms. In it, the head of American diplomacy declares: “It is unacceptable that foreign charges emit or threaten to issue arrest orders against US citizens or residents due to comments on US social networks while they are physically present on US soil.”
He also considers “equally unacceptable” that “foreign positions demand that American technological platforms adopt global content moderation policies or get involved in a census activity that exceeds their competencies and (interferes) in the United States.”
“We will not tolerate American sovereignty cuts, especially when such cuts undermine the exercise of our fundamental right to free expression,” concludes the Secretary of State.
It is not clear, so far, how Washington plans to apply this restrictive visa policy or who will consider responsible for allegedly censor policies. Neither the statement of the State Department nor the message of Rubio in social networks mentions specific cases or specific people.
Sanctions against a Brazilian judge
The announcement comes after the State Department made sanctions against the judge of the Brazilian Supreme Court Alexandre de Moraes, which temporarily blocked the access of Brazilians to Twitter after the owner of the social network, the technological oligarch Elon Musk, refused to censor “misinformation” of the extreme right.
In February, the US Vice President JD Vance had strongly criticized Europeans in a Munich in which he lashed out at legal limitations and the freedom of expression of ultra -right candidates. “Freedom of expression is in recoil in Europe,” said the high position, according to which in the continent an antidemocratic reaction expands that seeks to suppress the ideology of the extreme right, perfectly legitimate in his opinion.
State Department officials have traveled this week to France to express the concern of the Trump administration about the prohibition of the ultra -right -wing leader Marine Le Pen to present themselves to the next presidential elections. They have also moved to Ireland, where they have protested against.
The European Law, which entered into force fully for 19 platforms in 2023, seeks to better protect consumers and their fundamental rights online, combat illegal contents, favor more transparency and guarantee a “single and uniform market in the EU.” Washington considers that this law censures users and US social media platforms.
