The US State Department is allegedly working on the creation of an online platform, which will facilitate Europe residents and other non-US citizens to access banned content, including media that might be classified as hate speech and propaganda, according to an exclusive report from Reuters on Thursday.
As per sources, cited by Reuters, Washington considers this action as a way to oppose censorship. The website was to be hosted at the domain name "freedom.gov".
There may also be further actions taken to help users cover their tracks while going through such content with a VPN (virtual private network) feature to make the user traffic look like it was from the US as well as not tracking user activity.
According to the sources, the project was to be announced at the Munich Security Conference but faced delays. The development is being led by Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers.
Not all within the administration seemed to be in agreement with these plans, with sources stating the selected State Department officials and lawyers were not on board with the project and raised concerns regarding the same.
A State Department spokesperson told Reuters that Washington is not in possession of a censorship-circumvention program focused on Europe. They said that digital freedom is a priority for the State Department, and that includes the proliferation of privacy and censorship-circumvention technologies like VPNs.
They also denied any announcements regarding the same being and stated that there were no officials that raised these concerns. The US under Donald Trump's presidency, centred its opposition to what it referred to as the suppression of free speech in European countries as well as Brazil.
Europe's legal systems do not permit absolute free speech in cases where it is deemed as hate speech, which is different from the US' second amendment, which prohibits the restriction of freedom of speech.
The European Union's caveats to free speech stem from an aim to keep in check the resurgence of Nazi ideology, which had employed propaganda to malign and vilify Jewish people, foreigners, Romani people and other minorities.
Trump administration officials also criticised EU countries and neighbours calling out Romania, Germany and France for their alleged curtailment of right-wing politicians. He cited laws such as the EU's Digital Services Act and Britain's Online Safety Act limit free speech.
The US has professed endeavours to oppose Europe's "current trajectory".
In a National Security Strategy published in December, the Trump administration claimed that Europe faced a "civilisational erasure" and said this was due to its policy on migration. The strategy said that the US would prioritize "cultivating resistance to Europe's current trajectory within European nations."
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