Nicked from the Guardian:
Yesterday Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, issued this statement saying:
The State Department is taking decisive action against five individuals who have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose. These radical activists and weaponized NGOs have advanced censorship crackdowns by foreign states—in each case targeting American speakers and American companies. As such, I have determined that their entry, presence, or activities in the United States have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.
The state department has sanctioned five Europeans.
Former EU commissioner and activists barred from US in attack on European tech regulators
The list includes two Britons: Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, and Clare Melford, who runs the Global Disinformation Index. Ahmed used to work for the Labour party and he is close to Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s chief of staff. According to Politico’s London Playbook, Ahmed is based in Washington, where he has an American wife and child, and he now faces deportation. Politico also says Melford faces having her US visa revoked.
Last night Sarah Rogers, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy at the state department, posted a thread on X defending the decision. She said the Trump administration was targeting the “censorship-NGO ecosystem”.
Today, the United States issued SANCTIONS reinforcing the “red line” I invoked on @GBNEWS. Namely: extraterritorial censorship of Americans.
Today’s sanctions target the censorship-NGO ecosystem.
These sanctions are visa-related. We aren’t invoking severe Magnitsky-style financial measures, but our message is clear: if you spend your career fomenting censorship of American speech, you’re unwelcome on American soil.
She also took a swipe at the Liberal Democrats.
None of those sanctioned is a current UK or EU official—however, we know that foreign government officials are actively targeting the United States. This week, the UK’s Liberal Democrats claimed President Trump’s National Security Strategy amounts to “foreign interference” by a “hostile foreign state” because it correctly* identifies mass migration and decaying national sovereignty as existential European security concerns.
*In your opinion, sweetie. I'd say far too many people being overtly influenced by US media and social channels is the
real cause of decay in this country.
Two things:
One - can we refuse to have American hate speech in Europe and bar them from Europe? Can we ban Meta and X, for starters?
Two - is GB News now the official outlet for American bilge?