Two British campaigners are among five people denied US visas after the State Department accused them of seeking to coerce American tech platforms into suppressing free speech.
Imran Ahmed, an ex-Labour adviser who now heads the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), and Clare Melford, CEO of the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), were labelled radical activists by the Trump administration and banned from entering the US.
A French ex-EU commissioner and two senior figures at a Germany-based anti-online hate group were also denied visas.
European leaders have condemned the measures, while the UK government said it is fully committed to upholding free speech.
While every country has the right to set its own visa rules, we support the laws and institutions which are working to keep the internet free from the most harmful content, a UK government spokesperson said.
French President Emmanuel Macron described the travel ban as intimidation and coercion aimed at undermining European digital sovereignty while the EU's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said it was unacceptable and an attempt to challenge our sovereignty.
The US billed the measures as a response to people and organisations that have campaigned for restrictions on American tech firms, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying they belonged to a global censorship-industrial complex.
Ahmed from the CCDH, which advocates for government action against hate speech and disinformation online, has links to senior Labour figures. Melford founded the GDI, a non-profit monitoring disinformation.
The visa sanctions have been described as an authoritarian attack on free speech by a GDI spokesperson.
Moreover, the bans also targeted figures involved with the EU's Digital Services Act, which some US conservatives criticize for censorship.
In response to the travel restrictions, Breton, a key EU figure, urged Americans to consider the implications of censorship.
Ahmed and Melford's campaign efforts against hate speech have sparked a heated debate on the borders of freedom of expression and government regulations online.
