The European Union somehow believes it has the authority to order Joe Biden Regency-like censorship on American social media platforms. Donald Trump believes … otherwise. And now French president Emmanuel Macron went to the same platform that the EU wants to censor to complain about Trump undermining “sovereignty.”
Do tell.
This started with a levy against X/Twitter by the solons of Brussels for Elon Musk’s refusal to adhere to the EU’s new law on “transparency” for social media platforms. They socked X/Twitter with a $140 million fine and demanded access to internal operations as well as its engagement with advertisers:
European Union regulators on Friday fined X, Elon Musk’s social media platform, 120 million euros ($140 million) for breaches of the bloc’s digital regulations, in a move that risks rekindling tensions with Washington over free speech.
The European Commission issued its decision following an investigation it opened two years ago into X under the 27-nation bloc’s Digital Services Act, also known as the DSA.
It’s the first time that the EU has issued a so-called non-compliance decision since rolling out the DSA. The sweeping rulebook requires platforms to take more responsibility for protecting European users and cleaning up harmful or illegal content and products on their sites, under threat of hefty fines.
The EU denied that this has anything to do with censorship, but the targeting of advertisers in this action make the intent plain enough. The EU has no business inserting itself into the contractual operations of private-sector advertising except to get reports on its legitimate taxable revenue. By inserting itself into those relationships, the EU can create more pressure on X/Twitter to block content the EU deems “harmful.” As Musk and the rest of us experienced in the Biden Regency, the definition of “harmful” in online speech very quickly became “whatever tends to make the ruling elite look stupid, corrupt, or both.”
Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned at the time that the Trump administration would not take this lying down:
“The European Commission’s $140 million fine isn’t just an attack on @X, it’s an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments,” Rubio wrote. “The days of censoring Americans online are over.”
Vice President JD Vance, posting on X ahead of the decision, accused the Commission of seeking to fine X “for not engaging in censorship.”
“The EU should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage,” he wrote.
The shoe dropped yesterday. The State Department revoked visas for five EU officials involved in the fine on X/Twitter. Rubio made the announcement himself:
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.
Based on these determinations, the Department has taken steps to impose visa restrictions on agents of the global censorship-industrial complex who, as a result, will be generally barred from entering the United States. Further, based on the foreign policy determination, the Department of Homeland Security can initiate removal proceedings against certain individuals pursuant to INA section 237(a)(4)(C), which renders such individuals deportable.
President Trump has been clear that his America First foreign policy rejects violations of American sovereignty. Extraterritorial overreach by foreign censors targeting American speech is no exception. The State Department stands ready and willing to expand today’s list if other foreign actors do not reverse course.
One of the names will sound familiar to Americans attuned to censorship efforts in the past:
The individuals, named by Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers in a series of posts on X, are Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate; Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, leaders of the German group HateAid; Clare Melford, head of the Global Disinformation Index, and Thierry Breton, former European Union commissioner responsible for digital policy.
Much of the dispute revolves around the EU’s Digital Services Act, or DSA, which took effect in 2022. The law requires large platforms to take stronger action against illegal content, improve transparency around advertising, and give regulators and researchers more insight into how content spreads online.
Rogers said Breton played a central role in shaping the DSA, which she linked to warnings issued to X owner Elon Musk last year over what EU officials saw as the possible “amplification of harmful content” ahead of a livestreamed interview with President Donald Trump during the 2024 campaign.
We’ve written about Breton in particular quite a bit over the last three years. The most recent post came in September, when Trump warned that he would take exactly this step if the EU attempted to enforce their DSA on American-based social media platforms:
🔴 Donald Trump is considering a United States travel ban for European Union officials responsible for the bloc’s Digital Services Act and additional tariffs on countries with similar laws, which he claims discriminate against Americans
Read more ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/xVVsPG8zlC
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) August 26, 2025
Play stupid censorship games, especially while attempting to regulate US-based speech, and win stupid censorship prizes.
Macron erupted in outrage – on X/Twitter, hilariously – to fume over Trump’s supposed insult to “sovereignty”:
France condemns the visa restriction measures taken by the United States against Thierry Breton and four other European figures.
These measures amount to intimidation and coercion aimed at undermining European digital sovereignty.…
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) December 24, 2025
Ahem. US-based social-media platforms do not operate under “European digital sovereignty.” They operate in the US. The US has repeatedly warned the EU about attempting to impose “European digital sovereignty” in order to censor the speech of Americans on US-based platforms, not to mention using advertiser information to conduct economic warfare to accomplish it. Macron and the EU are exercising breathtaking arrogance to become the Digital World Government, and Trump is making it clear that the US will start taking names and delivering consequences for that arrogance.
I had my fill of elite censorship For The Greater Good during the Biden regency. We don’t need to kowtow to Brussels while getting a second round of it from the EU. The State Department should turn the screws slowly but surely until Macron and the super-government in Belgium gets the message. Preferably on X/Twitter.
Editor’s Note: Here at Hot Air, we’ve been dealing with real government suppression of free speech for YEARS. Despite the threats and consequences, we refuse to go silent and remain committed to delivering the truth.
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