The US Department of state has imposed visa restrictions on the previous EU Commissioner Thierry Breton and up to four NGO representatives over the Digital Services Act after Elon Musk was slapped with a €120 million fine over DSA violations.
The announcement was made by the Secretary of Sstate Marco Rubio on X.com along with other DOS officials but no official statement from the DOS website is available.
The US government is falsely claiming that the fine was imposed by the EU over free speech issues and that Europe is censoring Americans but none of this is actually found in Elon Musk’s violations of the DSA which mostly comprise of violations about advertiser transparency and blue checkmarks.
The NGO officials who have also been imposed visa restrictions include Chief Executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) Imran Ahmed (UK), Chief Executive of the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) Clare Melford (UK), and the Co-leaders of HateAid Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon.
The sanctions follow other sanctions on Judge of the International Criminal Court for investigating and prosecuting Israeli war crimes. The DOS also referred to the Magnitsky Act when issuing the latest sanctions despite the original proponent of the law declaring that the US government is abusing the act and using it for other purposes than it was originally intended.
Speaking to the German press, a representative of the Heritage Foundation said that the latest sanctions against Thierry Breton reflects the US National Security Strategy, reiterating that the US government should fight the European Union and support far-right and pro-Russian political parties as its alternative.
Elon Musk previously met EU Commissioner Thierry Breton and said that he agreed with the DSA.
Newsroom
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