It has long been the case, probably since the end World War II which saw the emergence of the US as the dominant world power largely unscathed by the destruction that had been wrought in Europe, that the US saw itself as the one true power and that other nations, including those ostensibly its allies in Europe, as vassal states. This was not overtly stated. Instead we had supposedly multi-nation collaborative arrangements such as NATO and various economic groupings, as the US sought to limit the impact of the USSR and the Warsaw pact countries, and later with Russia when that pact collapsed. But there was always the steel hand beneath that velvet glove, the implied threat that the US would always want to have its own way in international affairs.

But in the Trump era, that veneer of cooperation has been rapidly wearing away and the steel hand is now manifesting itself in many ways, big and small. One way is of course the unilateral imposition of tariffs and other trade measures. The other is the demand that other countries not impose their laws on those US companies and industries that the US favors, such as the tech sector, which has been accused of actively encouraging harmful behaviors on the internet.

This took a dramatic turn yesterday when the US imposed visa bans on five EU high-ranking officials who had been involved in the drafting and execution of laws regulating tech companies.

European leaders including Emmanuel Macron have accused Washington of “coercion and intimidation”, after the US imposed a visa ban on five prominent European figures who have been at heart of the campaign to introduce laws regulating American tech companies.

The visa bans were imposed on Tuesday on Thierry Breton, the former EU commissioner and one of the architects of the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA), and four anti-disinformation campaigners, including two in Germany and two in the UK.

The other individuals targeted were Imran Ahmed, the British chief executive of the US-based Center for Countering Digital Hate; Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon of the German non-profit HateAid; and Clare Melford, co-founder of the Global Disinformation Index.
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Justifying the visa bans, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, wrote on X: “For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organised efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose. The Trump administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship.”

Germany, Spain, the UK and a chorus of EU officials joined the French president in condemning the move, with Brussels signalling it could “respond swiftly and decisively” against the “unjustified measures”.

The DSA is seen by Washington as a form of censorship while European leaders say the regulations are necessary to control hate speech, but the row threatens to become part of a far wider existing cultural and political conflict between Donald Trump’s administration and Europe. Artificial intelligence and digital technologies were always likely to become a major theatre of confrontation between the US and Europe, as these technologies become ever more central to wielding power.
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Breton, a former French finance minister and the European commissioner for the internal market from 2019 to 2024, said: “Is McCarthy’s witch-hunt back?

“As a reminder: 90% of the European parliament – our democratically elected body – and all 27 member states unanimously voted the DSA. To our American friends: censorship isn’t where you think it is.”

The EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said: “Freedom of speech is the foundation of our strong and vibrant European democracy. We are proud of it. We will protect it.” A commission spokesperson added: “If needed, we will respond swiftly and decisively to defend our regulatory autonomy against unjustified measures.”

In the UK, the government said it was “fully committed” to upholding free speech.

Interestingly, Ahmed lives in Washington, DC so presumably he and his family will have to leave and return to the UK. Despite its words, I do not expect the UK government to actually do anything to try and prevent the expulsion of its citizens. It has long been the case that the US rides roughshod over UK governments who do not do anything other than issue statements and Keir Starmer is one of the worst in terms of exhibiting pusillanimity. France and Germany are more likely to take at least some steps in response.

Dennis Radtke, an MEP and member of the German ruling CDU, said: “The Trump fans in Europe defend this as a fight for freedom of speech. Where exactly has an opinion been suppressed? Where is the fight for freedom of speech with regard to China and Russia? It’s only about business here and the fight against the rule of law.”

Raphaël Glucksmann, a French socialist MEP, said in a message to Rubio: “For far too long, Europe has been weak in implementing its own laws and defending its own interests. You have chosen to cosy up tyrants and confront democracies. The time has come for us to stand up. Kneel as much as you want in front of Putin, we are the free world now.

“We are not a colony of the United States. We are Europeans, we must defend our laws, our principles, our interests. This scandalous sanction against Thierry Breton pays tribute to his fight for our sovereignty. We will continue it together. To the end.”

Strong words, but it is not clear how they will respond. As in the case of tariffs, they could take reciprocal measures and ban visas for some high-ranking US officials.

Elon Musk is one of those fighting to curb the European laws.

Trump allies have also targeted Imran Ahmed’s Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a US-UK organisation which campaigns against online hate speech. Ahmed was one of the people who received a visa ban on Wednesday. CCDH was the target of an Elon Musk lawsuit in 2023 but the claim was thrown out by a judge last year who said the legal challenge, which focused on allegations that CCDH accessed data on X illegally, was in fact “about punishing the defendants for their speech”. In a post on X, Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist”, described CCDH as a “truly evil organization that just wants to destroy the first amendment under the guise of doing good!”

Ever since Musk took over Twitter/X, it has become a platform for promoting hate under the umbrella of promoting free speech. However, he does not hesitate to try and prevent other people from criticizing him.

The CCDH has previously incurred the wrath of Musk over its reports chronicling the rise of racist, antisemitic and extremist content on X since he took over the platform. Musk tried unsuccessfully to sue the organisation last year, before calling it a “criminal organisation”.

The X owner has also called for the GDI to be shut down over its criticism of rightwing websites for spreading disinformation. And he has railed against the EU’s Digital Services Act, which Breton helped spearhead, and under which X was hit with a €120m (£105m) fine for what the EU called the deceptive design of its blue tick system for verifying users.

This is going to be a test of whether at least some European countries, especially France and Germany, are willing to stand up at all to the US. I expect nothing from the UK.