State dept warns countries over coercing US tech companies into censorship

The State Department is warning foreign governments against pressuring U.S. tech companies into censorship

The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor posted on X, the Department of State is deeply concerned about efforts by governments to coerce American tech companies

into targeting individuals for censorship. Freedom of expression must be protected online and offline

Examples of this conduct are troublingly numerous. EU Commissioner Terry Breton threatened X for hosting political speech

Turkey fined Mehta for refusing to restrict content about protests, and Australia required X to remove a post criticizing an individual for promoting gender ideology

In the EU, Commissioner Terry Breton sent a letter to Elon Musk in August

saying the platform could face consequences if posts were seen as harmful to people in the European Union

criticizing him over a lack of content moderation. In Turkey, the government fined Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram

after the company pushed back against demand to take down posts from political opponents

Meta argued this kind of pressure from governments can limit free speech

In the other example mentioned by the State Department, a post on X from Canadian activist Chris Elston, known online as Billboard Chris

criticized an Australian transgender advocate sparking a legal battle. In February 2024 Elston reposted a Daily Mail article about Teddy Cook a transgender person appointed to a World Health Organization panel on trans healthcare

Australia's e-safety commissioner said the post misgendered Cook in a way that was meant to mock and cause harm

The commission then ordered the social media platform X to take it down

But X and Elston are challenging Australia's call to take down the post

That legal process is still playing out. In the meantime, access to this post has been restricted under a geo-based ban in Australia by its government

However, it's still shown on X elsewhere, as we found the original X post without issue here in the U.S

The State Department agency saying on X, even when content may be objectionable, censorship undermines democracy, suppresses political

opponents, and degrades public safety. The United States opposes efforts to undermine freedom of

expression. As Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, our diplomacy will continue to place an

emphasis on promoting fundamental freedoms. The Trump administration has been vocal in its first

100 days against countries that are, as they describe it, suppressing online speech

You may remember last month we covered Vice President J.D. Vance's remarks over UK hate

speech laws, reportedly wanting them to be put under review as part of trade talks with the U.S

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