Rubio Says US to Refuse Visas to Officials over Online 'Censorship'
The United States will refuse visas to foreign officials who block Americans' social media posts, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday in his latest crackdown.
Rubio — who himself has come under fire for removing US visas from activists who criticize Israel — said he was acting against "flagrant censorship actions" overseas against US tech firms.
He did not publicly name any official who would lose a visa under the new policy. But last week, he suggested to lawmakers that he was planning action against Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes, who has battled X owner Elon Musk to remove alleged disinformation.
The administration of President Donald Trump — himself a prolific and often confrontational social media user — has also sharply criticized allies Germany and Britain for restricting what the governments term hate speech.
Rubio said that the United States will begin to restrict visas to foreign nationals who are responsible for censorship of protected expression in the United States."
"It is unacceptable for foreign officials to issue or threaten arrest warrants on US citizens or US residents for social media posts on American platforms while physically present on US soil," Rubio said in a statement.
"It is similarly unacceptable for foreign officials to demand that American tech platforms adopt global content moderation policies or engage in censorship activity that reaches beyond their authority and into the United States," he said.
"We will not tolerate encroachments upon American sovereignty, especially when such encroachments undermine the exercise of our fundamental right to free speech."
Rubio has said that he has revoked the US visas for thousands of people, largely students who have protested against Israel's offensive in Gaza.
Among the most visible cases has been Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University who had written an opinion piece in a student newspaper criticizing the school's position on Gaza.
US social media companies like Facebook and Instagram parent Meta have said an EU content moderation law, the Digital Services Act, amounts to censorship of their platforms. The Trump-appointed chairman of the US Federal Communications Commission in March warned that the EU Digital Services Act excessively restricts freedom of expression.
EU officials have defended the law, which is meant to make the online environment safer and fairer by compelling tech giants to do more to tackle illegal content, including hate speech and child sexual abuse material.
'Shared values'
In a social media post on Wednesday, Rubio added, "Whether in Latin America, Europe, or elsewhere, the days of passive treatment for those who work to undermine the rights of Americans are over."
Rubio did not name specific countries or individuals that would be targeted. Brazil has clashed with the platform X, owned by Trump ally Elon Musk, over compliance with orders to take down accounts accused of spreading misinformation. The Trump administration has repeatedly called out European nations for supposed censorship of online content.
Vice President JD Vance denounced content moderation while in Paris in February, calling it "authoritarian censorship."
In April, Rubio shut down a State Department office that had sought to counter foreign disinformation, accusing it of censorship and wasting US taxpayer money.
Announcing that move, he said freedom of expression was vital to US ties with Western European nations, and warned that those who threaten free speech "are attacking one of the pillars of our shared interest, our shared culture, our shared values."
Free speech issues would be raised in diplomacy with the EU and had been raised separately with Britain's prime minister, Rubio added. - AFP/Reuters
