Trump administration plans funding push to promote free speech in Europe

The administration of US President Donald Trump plans to finance initiatives in Western countries aimed at promoting free speech, in what US officials describe as a response to European legislation they argue amounts to censorship.

Washington has been sharply critical of laws regulating online activity, including the European Union’s Digital Services Act and the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act. US officials say these measures restrict freedom of expression, particularly criticism of immigration policy, and create barriers for American technology companies. European governments and supporters of the legislation counter that the rules are necessary to combat hate speech, disinformation and misinformation.

Sarah Rogers, the US undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, has emerged as a central figure in the administration’s pushback against these European laws. The State Department said Rogers will address issues of free speech and online freedom during upcoming visits to Dublin, Budapest, Warsaw and Munich.

Speaking on February 9 at a panel discussion in Budapest, Rogers said her office would be fully transparent about its activities. She noted that her position enables her to channel US government funding through grant programs and said she intends to use those mechanisms to promote free speech in allied democracies.

The US national security strategy released in December accused European leaders of restricting free expression and suppressing opponents of immigration policies, warning that such actions were exposing the continent to what it described as a potential “collapse of civilization.”

In a related move, Washington later denied visas to a former European Union commissioner and four individuals involved in anti-disinformation initiatives, arguing that they had participated in censorship of US social media platforms. European officials condemned the decision and defended their right to regulate how foreign technology companies operate within Europe.

US politicians have also criticized what they describe as the targeting of European far-right parties, portraying them as victims of censorship and arguing that legitimate concerns about migration are being mislabeled as hate speech.

On February 9, Rogers also held talks with an adviser to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, saying afterward that the Trump administration shares the views of what she described as a large majority of Europeans on migration. She cited survey data from a European country, without naming which one.

Rogers stressed that the US government is taking an assertive approach to defending freedom of expression, arguing that without it there can be no self-determination and that democratic freedoms cannot exist if certain opinions are barred from the public sphere.