The State Department is putting pressure on Europe, accusing it of curbing free speech, Politico reported.
„Orwellian messages will not fool us. Censorship is not freedom,“ the State Department said in a statement on social media, quoted by the publication.
According to Politico, the administration of US President Donald Trump claims that thousands of people in Europe are being criticized for speaking out against the actions of European governments.
The State Department linked its statement to the Digital Services Act, a set of EU rules on technology and social media that US officials believe “only protect European leaders from their own people“, the publication reports.
Politico recalled that during the Munich Security Conference in February, US Vice President J.D. Vance lashed out at European governments, saying that Europe was retreating from “some of its core values“.
Vance also stressed that Europe was “useless to The US“ is afraid of its own voters and needs a democratic mandate to do anything significant in the coming years. On February 16, conference chairman Christoph Heusgen called the results of the forum “Europe's nightmare”. According to him, Vance's speech shows that Europe and the US no longer share common values.