The five individuals who were sanctioned included Thierry Breton and Imran Ahmed, who had a dispute with Elon Musk.
The five individuals who were sanctioned included Thierry Breton and Imran Ahmed, who had a dispute with Elon Musk.
On Tuesday, the Trump Administration enacted a promised retaliation aimed at foreigners involved in content moderation. The State Department declared sanctions prohibiting US access for former EU commissioner Thierry Breton, alongside four researchers, while also issuing a deliberately intimidating warning to others, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio asserting, “The State Department stands prepared to expand today’s roster if other foreign entities do not change their behavior.”
One of the researchers identified by the State Department as banned and now subject to deportation is Imran Ahmed, who leads the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), an organization focused on identifying and countering hate speech online that Elon Musk attempted and failed to suppress with a lawsuit that was dismissed in early 2024. In his ruling, Judge Charles Breyer stated that X’s motivation for the lawsuit was to “penalize CCDH for its publications that criticized X Corp. — and possibly to deter others.”
Breton is regarded as “a key architect of the Digital Services Act” by US Under Secretary of State Sarah Rogers, who specifically mentioned a letter he sent to Elon Musk prior to a livestreamed event with Donald Trump, indicating X’s legal responsibilities under the DSA concerning illegal content and misinformation.
The other researchers include Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon, heads of HateAid, a nonprofit that attempted to sue X in 2023 for “not removing illegal antisemitic content,” along with Clare Melford, who leads the Global Disinformation Index, which works on “repairing the systems that allow for disinformation.”
The press release announcing the sanctions is entitled “Announcement of Actions to Combat the Global Censorship-Industrial Complex,” which was cited by Republicans like House Judiciary Committee leader Jim Jordan, as they have fought against efforts to implement fact-checking and misinformation research on social media platforms. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that the State Department instructed US consulates to consider denying H-1B visa applicants involved in content moderation, and just days ago, the Office of the US Trade Representative threatened action against European tech companies like Spotify and SAP over allegedly “biased” actions in regulating US tech platforms.
