The Trump administration will fund efforts to promote free speech in Western countries allied to Washington, a senior State Department official said Monday, during a visit to Europe aimed at combating European regulations that U.S. officials have called censorship.
U.S. officials have come out strongly against online rules like the EU’s Digital Services Act and the U.K.’s Online Security Act, which Washington says stifle free speech, particularly criticism of immigration policies, while imposing onerous requirements on U.S. technology companies. Supporters argue that these rules combat hate speech, misinformation and false information online.
Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers, who has emerged as a leading figure in this initiative, will discuss freedom of expression and digital freedom with officials and others on her trip to Dublin, Budapest, Warsaw and Munich, the State Department said.
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“One way my office will operate differently is that we will be very upfront and transparent about everything we do,” Rogers said during a panel discussion in Budapest on Monday, emphasizing that his role has the power to direct U.S. funding through grants. “I want to promote freedom of expression in Western allied democracies, and… that’s what my grants will do.”
A Financial Times report last week cited sources with knowledge of the matter as saying that Rogers had discussed with members of the British opposition Reform party a plan to fund think tanks and institutions aligned with President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” policies.
Asked about the report, a State Department spokesperson would not confirm the specific funding, but called the plan “a transparent and lawful use of resources to advance U.S. interests and values abroad.”
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‘Forbidden’ views
The government’s National Security Strategy, released in December, stated that European leaders were censoring free speech and suppressing opposition to immigration policies, which it said put the continent’s “extinction of civilization” at risk.
The US then issued visa bans against a former European Union commissioner and four anti-disinformation activists who Washington said were involved in censoring US social media platforms. European leaders condemned the bans and defended Europe’s right to legislate how foreign companies operate locally.
U.S. officials have also engaged with far-right parties in Europe that they see as targets of online rules, arguing that legitimate anti-immigration views are censored in the name of preventing hate speech.
Rogers, who appeared Monday alongside an aide to Hungarian nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, said the Trump administration is not at odds with most people in Europe on issues like migration, citing polls in European countries that she did not specify.
“The United States government, through me, but not just me, has been aggressively involved in the issue of free speech, because there is no self-government without free speech, you cannot have democratic deliberation if views are banned in the public square,” Rogers said.
