The Trump administration is working on an online portal at “freedom. gov” to help people in other countries access content that their governments have banned.
High-ranking officials have often criticized international attempts to manage harmful online speech, claiming such laws effectively silence conservative viewpoints.
This includes opposition to the Online Safety Act in the UK and the EU’s Digital Services Act, which require platforms to remove illegal content and harmful speech or risk hefty fines.
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The new portal is being spearheaded by Sarah B Rogers, the US under-secretary of state, who was set to unveil the project at last weekend’s Munich security conference, according to Reuters.
Sarah B Rogers is leading the initiative
US DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Also part of this effort is Edward Coristine, a former member of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency informally referred to in Washington as “Big Balls”.
The existing site freedom. gov, which was registered on January 12, states: “Freedom is coming. Information is power. Reclaim your human right to free expression. Get ready.”
The portal is anticipated to offer a virtual private network (VPN), enabling users from other countries to conceal their online identities. This could let someone in the UK appear as if they are browsing from the US without being tracked.
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It’s unclear what unique features this portal will have compared to existing commercial VPNs. Right now, internet users can use their own VPNs to bypass age-verification or location restrictions and access content blocked under EU and UK laws.
A spokesperson for the state department told Reuters that there isn’t a censorship-circumvention program exclusively for Europe but added: “Digital freedom is a priority for the State Department, however, and that includes the proliferation of privacy and censorship-circumvention technologies like VPNs.” The spokesperson denied any delays in announcements.
Rogers, along with others in the administration including vice-president JD Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio, has consistently criticized what she believes is a decline in freedom of speech across Europe and beyond. In December she visited London, Paris, Rome, and Milan and called the Online Safety Act “tyrannical and absurd”.
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That month she told The Times that Europe was naturally “high-profile” due to various factors including the €100 million ruling against X over transparency issues.
However , she said th e admini stration was also paying attention t o“ places like Australia , places lik e South Korea which are considering similar kinds o f legislation ”.
In December , Rubio announced visa restrictions o n five individuals he accused o f coercing American platforms“to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose ”. These included Imran Ahmed , the former Labour adviser an d chief executive o f th e Centre for Countering Digital Hate.
The portal i s th e latest effort b y U S officials t o address what th e recently National Security Strategy labeled“the prospect of civilizational erasure”, attributing it t o combinations like mass migration an d“censorship of free speech an d suppression o f political opposition”.
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Sir Keir Starmer an d European Union leaders h ave shown reluctance t o soften regulations on tech companies despite US critique. Speaking at th e Munich security conference last weekend , Ursula von der Leyen , th e president of th e commission , said Europe would “not flinch”in enforcing its digital rules.
“I want t o be very clear : our digital sovereignty i s our digital sovereignty,”she stated.
Th e State Department was contacted fo r comment.
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