US officials spotlight European 'censorship' despite concerns over free speech at home

By Simon Lewis and Humeyra Pamuk

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Trump administration officials hosted an event on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday purporting to promote free speech, the latest stage in a push against what Washington calls censorship in Europe that has seen the U.S. align itself with far-right European politicians

The gathering came after President Donald Trump delivered a combative speech to the assembly on Tuesday, telling European leaders "your countries are going to hell" over immigration policies, leaving U.S. allies uneasy about transatlantic relations.

Thursday's event, titled "The Fight for Free Speech: Resisting Global Censorship," also took place amid a fierce debate in the United States over curbs on speech by Trump's administration.

Internal State Department emails showed that officials had planned to invite representatives of right-wing political parties including Alternative for Germany (AfD), France's National Rally, the Netherlands' Party for Freedom and Britain's Reform, as well as representatives of right-leaning European governments like Hungary and Slovakia.

A State Department spokesperson said those parties did not attend the event, but said it was "well attended including by representatives from major American technology companies and representatives from EU member states.”

“As the President and Vice President have noted, we have seen a concerning trend in Europe — with American digital platforms, independent journalists and private citizens in Europe all being subject to arrest and punitive regulatory fines for basic exercises of free expression," the spokesperson said by email.

Jeremy Lewin, a former official of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency who now oversees the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) as well as its offices on religious freedom and foreign assistance, took part in the discussion, according to a post on X from DRL.

Participants in the invitation-only event at a New York hotel on Thursday were also expected to include a representative from X, the site owned by Musk, and officials from the international arm of the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group, according to an invitation seen by Reuters.

A Reuters reporter outside the event saw officials from Britain, Slovakia and Latvia, as well as a dissident from Nicaragua, entering the meeting room on Thursday.

'AVENUES FOR OVERREACH'

In recent weeks, Trump and his top officials have issued public threats and put left-leaning groups on notice for language they find unacceptable following the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk earlier this month.

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel was suspended from his show for nearly a week after pressure from Trump's Federal Communications Commission chair over remarks he made about Kirk's death.

An internal planning document for Thursday's event said it would build on JD Vance’s February speech at the 2025 Munich Security Conference, where the vice president accused European leaders of stifling their own citizens' speech, particularly criticism of immigration policies.

"Amid rising global censorship - in both authoritarian regimes and democratic nations - to silence disfavored voices, collective effort and action is urgently needed to reject censorship and advance the protection of freedom of expression," the document said, adding the Trump administration was seeking to galvanize collective action to counter legislation, policies and practices that "create avenues for overreach."

According to internal emails seen by Reuters, the State Department initially proposed inviting some right-wing parties but not sitting governments of those countries. Officials in the department's Europe bureau questioned the wisdom of doing so, a highly unusual approach to an event during the UN General Assembly's high-level week, according to the emails.

A later planning document indicated government representatives would be invited to make brief interventions but it was unclear which governments had been invited.

OPPOSITION TO ONLINE RESTRICTIONS

The event underscores the broader ideological clash with Europe over free speech boundaries, in which the Trump administration has positioned itself as a global defender of First Amendment-style freedoms while European governments pursue content moderation policies aimed at combating disinformation and hate speech.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio in May announced new visa restrictions targeting foreign officials who "censor" American companies and citizens.

The administration has also instructed diplomats to build opposition to the EU's Digital Services Act, claiming it enables censorship under the guise of content moderation. It has also opposed Britain's Online Safety Act that the UK government says is meant to protect children and tackle illegal content.

A State Department delegation met with France's National Rally officials in late May, but their offer to publicly support Marine Le Pen after she was barred from office was rebuffed by the far-right party.

The delegation was led by Samuel Samson, a DRL official, who was seen attending the meeting on Thursday.

Le Pen was convicted in March of embezzling EU funds and sentenced to a five-year ban from political office, effectively barring her from the 2027 French presidential election.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis in Washington and Humeyra Pamuk in New York; additional reporting by Anton Zverev and John Irish; Editing by Don Durfee and Alistair Bell)