freedom.gov The next clash between Trump and the EU

The next possible conflict between the US and Europe: According to report by the American news agency Reuters, the Trump administration is planning a portal called freedom.gov to provide Europeans with a way to access content that is blocked in their home countries. This will include posts that are classified as hate speech or terrorist propaganda.

Currently, freedom.gov displays an announcement page. Under the heading “Freedom is Coming,” where the word freedom is pixelated and the pixels grow larger with your mouse pointer, it says in English: “Information is power. Claim your human right to free speech. Get ready.” Depending on the country from which the page is accessed, translated language versions of the announcement appear.

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Technically, what the US government is planning is nothing new: According to Reuters, a VPN feature is intended to make a user’s data traffic appear to “come” from America. Furthermore, there will be no activity tracking. Various VPN providers have been offering similar services for some time. What will be new is that a government – ​​and one that has many allies with EU states – is openly undermining local laws and inciting citizens to break the law.

Apparently, the plan is not accepted even in the US: lawyers from the US State Department have expressed objections, as reported by Reuters. The department itself denies this. According to the publication, the launch of the portal was planned during the Munich Security Conference, but was postponed, without any official reason. Undersecretary Sarah Rogers is leading the project.

The Trump administration has made no secret in the past that it views EU legislation such as the Digital Services Act (DSA) as excessive. In the US, the fundamental right to freedom of speech is interpreted more broadly than in Europe. The Trump administration criticizes EU platform regulation as censorship of conservative voices. One reason for this was that the social network X was fined 120 million euros by the EU in December.

The current US government project contrasts with the cancellation of funding for non-profit digital projects such as Let's Encrypt and Tor. The certificate authority and anonymization network were supported by the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) until US President Donald Trump stopped it with an executive order.

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