PARIS, Dec 24 (Reuters) – The French government condemned on Wednesday a visa ban imposed by the Trump administration on Thierry Breton, a former European Union commissioner who helped drive the EU’s Digital Services Act, which has recently targeted top U.S. tech companies.
“France strongly condemns the visa restriction imposed by the United States on Thierry Breton, former minister and European Commissioner, and four other European figures,” wrote French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on X on Wednesday.
The Trump administration on Tuesday imposed visa bans on Breton and other anti-disinformation campaigners which it says were involved in censoring U.S. social media platforms, in the latest move in a campaign aimed at European rules that U.S. officials say go beyond legitimate regulation.
Breton, a former French finance minister and the European commissioner for the internal market from 2019-2024, was the most high-profile individual targeted by these bans.
The United States’ Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers described – when outlining the bans on Tuesday – Breton as a ‘mastermind’ of the EU’s Digital Services Act, which was again defended by Barrot on Wednesday.
“The Digital Services Act (DSA) was democratically adopted in Europe to ensure that what is illegal offline is also illegal online. It has absolutely no extraterritorial reach and in no way affects the United States,” wrote Barrot on X.
Breton himself also condemned the visa ban against him.
“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.’,” wrote Breton on X.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Michael Perry)
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