The Government of the American President, Donald Trumphas announced sanctions contra five European personalities who advocate for a strict regulation of the technology and against online disinformation, including former french commissioner of the European Commission Thierry Breton. The sanctioned people are also prohibited from entering the United States for endorsing legislation that resembles “censorship” to the detriment of American interests, in the words of the State Department.
“For too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American views with which they disagree,” criticized the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, on the social network to add: “The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship.”
The measure aims against Breton, former European Commissioner for the Internal Market who led the digital regulation in Europe. He french crashed con tech mogulslike Elon Muskfor enforcing the rules of the European Union (EU).
“The Mastermind”
The State Department described Breton as “the master mind” behind the Digital Services Act (DSA)which imposed measures of content moderation y data protection regulations to the main social networks.
“Is the wind of McCarthyism blowing again?”the former commissioner reacted in X, in reference to the anti-communist witch hunt promoted by then-US Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s. “A reminder: 90% of the democratically elected European Parliament and 27 Member States unanimously approved the DSA,” Breton added. To “our American friends: censorship is not where you think,” he concluded.
He French government has “firmly” criticized that the US Administration has prohibited entry to the country from which he was European Commissioner for the Internal Market between 2019-2024.
He Minister of Outdoors of France, Jean-Noël Barrotreacted after the reported measures: “People are free and sovereign and will not allow themselves to be imposed by others the rules that they decide to apply to their own Internet sphere,” said Barrot, in a message in ‘X’.
The European DSA, approved by the 27 EU member countries, includes measures such as the obligation for eliminate of social networks content deemed illegal and the protection of minors regarding personalized advertising.
A few weeks ago, the European Commission (EC) imposed a fine of 130 million euros a ‘X‘, owned by Elon Muskfor failing to comply with its transparency obligations.
