Overview
- The State Department imposed entry bans on HateAid’s Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon, former EU commissioner Thierry Breton, CCDH founder Imran Ahmed and GDI co‑founder Clare Melford.
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the group pressured U.S. platforms to suppress American viewpoints and warned more names could be added.
- HateAid called the action an act of repression that challenges European sovereignty, and Breton compared it to a McCarthy‑era witch hunt.
- Germany’s justice and foreign ministers rejected the U.S. claims and defended the EU’s Digital Services Act as a democratically adopted, EU‑only framework.
- The European Commission requested clarifications and signaled possible countermeasures to defend EU regulatory autonomy.