US Visa Ban on Ex-EU Commissioner Breton Draws Strong Reaction from France
A new front has opened in the transatlantic tech war, moving from boardrooms and courtrooms to personal travel documents. The French government issued a sharp condemnation on Wednesday after the Trump administration imposed a visa ban on Thierry Breton, the former European Union commissioner who was a central architect of the EU’s landmark Digital Services Act (DSA).
In a post on social media platform X, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot stated clearly: “France strongly condemns the visa restriction imposed by the United States on Thierry Breton, former minister and European Commissioner, and four other European figures.” The move targets Breton and other figures the U.S. administration labels as “anti-disinformation campaigners” involved in what it calls the censorship of American social media platforms.
The ban represents a significant escalation, personalizing a longstanding policy dispute. Breton, who served as the EU’s internal market commissioner from 2019 to 2024, was the most high-profile individual named. A former French finance minister, he was described by U.S. Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers as a ‘mastermind’ of the DSA—a label that underscores his perceived role in crafting rules that have placed stringent new obligations on major U.S. tech giants like Meta, Google, and Apple.
The core of the conflict lies in a fundamental disagreement over the reach and intent of European digital regulation. Minister Barrot vigorously defended the DSA on X, arguing, “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.” From the European perspective, the law is a democratic tool to establish order and accountability in the digital public square.
Breton himself fired back with a historical analogy and a pointed rebuttal. “Is McCarthy’s witch hunt back?” he questioned on X. He highlighted the broad democratic consensus behind the law, noting it was passed by “90 percent of the European Parliament… and all 27 Member States unanimously.” His final message to American friends carried a sting: “Censorship isn’t where you think it is.”
This visa ban transcends a simple diplomatic tit-for-tat. It signals a willingness to move beyond traditional state-to-state disagreements and impose direct personal consequences on individual policymakers for their roles in creating laws that affect U.S. corporate interests. It frames a regulatory debate about online safety, market power, and free speech as an act of political retribution.
The strong reaction from France, a key U.S. ally, indicates the potential for this tactic to further strain transatlantic relations. What was a clash of legal frameworks is now a dispute over the freedom of movement of former officials, setting a precedent that could chill cross-border policy dialogue and deepen the divide between two major regulatory philosophies governing the digital world. The battle for the future of the internet has just gotten decidedly more personal.
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