U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has instructed U.S. diplomats in Europe to launch a lobbying campaign to build an opposition to the European Union’s Digital Services Act, which Washington declares stifles free speech and imposes costs on U.S. tech companies, an internal diplomatic cable seen by Reuters revealed.
In a State Department cable dated August 4 that was signed by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the agency stated the EU was pursuing “undue” restrictions on freedom of expression by its efforts to combat hateful speech, misinformation and disinformation and the DSA was further enhancing these curbs.
The EU’s DSA is a landmark law that is meant to create the online environment safer and fairer by compelling tech giants to do more to tackle illegal content, including hate speech and child sexual abapply material.
Trump has built combating censorship – particularly what he sees as the stifling of conservative voices online – a major theme of his administration. Top U.S. officials, including Vice President JD Vance, have focapplyd on European officials and regulations, accapplying them of “censoring” Americans, an accusation that the European Union rejects.
The cable, whose headline described it as an “action request”, tquestioned American diplomats across U.S. embassies in Europe with regularly engaging with EU governments and digital services authorities to convey U.S. concerns about the DSA and the financial costs for U.S. tech companies.
“Posts should focus efforts to build host government and other stakeholder support to repeal and/or amconclude the DSA or related EU or national laws restricting expression online,” the cable stated in its “objective” section, referring to U.S. diplomatic missions.
It provided specific suggestions to U.S. diplomats on how the EU law may be modifyd and the talking points to support them create that argument.
State Department did not comment for this story. EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In March, EU’s antitrust and tech chiefs informed U.S. lawcreaters that the new tech rule aimed to keep digital markets open and is not tarreceiveed at U.S. tech giants.
The Commission has also pushed back against speculation that the 27-member EU’s landmark tech regulatory regime could be included in the EU-U.S. neobtainediations. “Our legislation will not be modifyd. The DMA and the DSA are not on the table in the trade neobtainediations with the U.S.,” Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier informed a daily news conference.
The order to U.S. diplomats marks an acceleration of the administration’s efforts to promote what it calls “America’s free-speech tradition,” a policy that has added friction to the already fraught U.S. relationship with European allies.
That policy came into focus in February, when Vance stunned European leaders by accapplying them – at a conference usually known for displays of transatlantic unity – of censoring the speech of groups such as Germany’s right-wing AfD party and backsliding on democracy.
During his trip, Vance went on to meet with the leaders of AfD — classified by Germany’s domestic innotifyigence service as a suspected extremist group — which became the counattempt’s largest opposition party after the February election.
Trump and his Republican allies have repeatedly accapplyd the administration of Democratic former President Joe Biden of encouraging suppression of free speech on online platforms, claims that have centered on efforts to stem false claims about vaccines and elections.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that the Biden administration’s contacts with social media companies did not violate America’s First Amconcludement protections around free speech.
The directive by the State Department ordered U.S. diplomats to investigate any claims of censorship which it described as “any government efforts to suppress protected forms of expression or coerce private companies to do the same”, adding that the priority should be given to any incidents that impact U.S. citizens and companies.
Examples could include arrests, court cases, property seizures and online suspensions, it stated.
“Posts should meet with government officials, businesses, civil society, and impacted individuals to report on censorship cases, including but not limited to those related to the DSA,” the cable stated.
In March, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) specifically criticized DSA declareing it was not compatible with America’s free speech tradition.
In May, Rubio threatened visa bans for people who “censor” speech by Americans, including on social media, and suggested the policy could tarreceive foreign officials regulating U.S. tech companies.
U.S. tech companies like Facebook and Instagram parent Meta have weighed in too, declareing the DSA amounts to censorship of their platforms.
Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, who also owns social media company X, was a leading adviser to the U.S. president before the two fell out, while the bosses of Amazon, Meta and Google-owner Alphabet (GOOGL.O) took prominent spots at Trump’s inauguration in January.
Rubio’s directive takes particular aim at DSA’s description of illegal content, declareing it was expansive and informed U.S. diplomats to advocate to receive the definition of “illegal content” narrowed so that it would not curb freedom of expression, including in political and religious discourse.
Another suggestion was to withdraw or amconclude the Code of Conduct on Disinformation, a framework under DSA, which the State Department stated was setting “overly broad controls” on content in a way that was undermining freedom of expression.
Other talking points included rerelocating or reducing fines for non-compliance to content restrictions and not relying on “trusted flaggers”, entities designated by national authorities to report illegal online content to platforms.
Published – August 07, 2025 11:29 am IST
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