Trump administration accused of ‘bullying tactics’ over sanctions

US President Donald Trump’s administration has been accused of “bullying tactics”  and undermining free speech by MPs after two British online campaigners were hit with US sanctions.

Former Labour adviser Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), and Oxford graduate Clare Melford, who leads the UK-based Global Disinformation Index (GDI) have been barred from entering the US.

The Trump administration has signalled the sanctions could be followed by further action, potentially targeting serving politicians or officials.

Other Europeans hit with travel bans were the former EU commissioner responsible for supervising social media rules, Thierry Breton, and Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, leaders of German organisation HateAid.

Those sanctioned have been involved in campaigns to tackle disinformation and hate speech online, but US secretary of state Marco Rubio accused them of leading “efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose”.

The Trump administration has signalled the sanctions could be followed by further action potentially targeting serving politicians or officials.

The UK Government said it was “fully committed” to free speech and supporting “the laws and institutions which are working to keep the internet free from the most harmful content”.

Mr Ahmed, who lives in Washington DC, has links to senior Labour figures, having previously worked as an adviser to now-Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn, during his time as shadow foreign secretary.

Additionally, Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, was listed as a director at the CCDH before resigning in April 2020, according to Companies House records.

Dame Chi Onwurah, the Labour chairwoman of the Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, said: “Banning people because you disagree with what they say undermines the free speech the administration claims to seek.

“We desperately need a wide-ranging debate on whether and how social media should be regulated in the interests of the people.

“Imran Ahmed gave evidence to the select committee’s inquiry into social media, algorithms and harmful content. He was an articulate advocate for greater regulation and accountability.

“Banning him won’t shut down the debate, too many people are being harmed by the spread of digital hate.”

Terror law watchdog Jonathan Hall KC said the imposition of sanctions by the US was a “significant move”.

The independent reviewer of terror legislation told Times Radio: “Sanctions are generally reserved for really serious matters of foreign policy where a country feels that its own interests are being severely threatened or where the world order feels threatened.”

He added that “it will send a really massive chilling effect on everyone else who’s discussing the subject at the moment”.

A GDI spokesperson said the visa sanctions on Ms Melford were “an authoritarian attack on free speech and an egregious act of government censorship”.

“The Trump administration is, once again, using the full weight of the federal government to intimidate, censor and silence voices they disagree with. Their actions today are immoral, unlawful and un-American.”

The action to bar them from the United States is part of a Trump administration campaign against foreign influence over online speech, using immigration law against its targets.

In a post on X, Mr Rubio said: “For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organised efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose.

“The Trump administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship.”

Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers hinted the action could spread wider: “None of those sanctioned is a current UK or EU official, however, we know that foreign government officials are actively targeting the United States.

“This week, the UK’s Liberal Democrats claimed President Trump’s national security strategy amounts to foreign interference by a hostile foreign state because it correctly identifies mass migration and decaying national sovereignty as existential European security concerns.”

The Lib Dems’ foreign affairs spokesman, Calum Miller, said: “Donald Trump has made it his explicit policy to interfere in European politics and ‘cultivate resistance’ in the UK and elsewhere. Nobody expects that to stop with words.

“Trump and his backers plan to pour money into British and European politics to try to change the outcomes of elections.

“That is different from the right to speak out and scrutinise the powerful. Trump likes to dish it out but not to take criticism.

“These sanctions are an attack on free speech and amount to bullying tactics. The Government must stand up for its citizens, not stay silent.”

A UK Government spokesperson said: “The UK is fully committed to upholding the right to 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.

“Social media platforms should not be used to disseminate child sex abuse material, incite hatred and violence, or spread fake information and videos for that purpose.”

French president Emmanuel Macron condemned the sanctions, accusing the US of “intimidation and coercion aimed at undermining European digital sovereignty”.

On X, he wrote: “The rules governing the European Union’s digital space are not meant to be determined outside Europe.

“Together with the European Commission and our European partners, we will continue to defend our digital sovereignty and our regulatory autonomy.”

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said: “The decision by the US to impose travel restrictions on European citizens and officials is unacceptable and an attempt to challenge our sovereignty.

“Europe will keep defending its values: freedom of expression, fair digital rules, and the right to regulate our own space.”