US Develops Online Portal to Promote Digital Freedom and Counter Censorship

The United States is developing an online portal aimed at allowing users in Europe and elsewhere to access content restricted under local laws, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the matter. The site, to be hosted at freedom.gov, is being developed by the US State Department as part of what the report describes as a broader push to promote “digital freedom” and counter online censorship. The launch, initially expected on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference last week, was delayed for reasons that remain unclear, the report said. According to the report, officials had discussed incorporating a virtual private network (VPN) function into the portal, potentially allowing users’ internet traffic to appear as if it originates from the United States. The report added that user activity on the site would not be tracked. In a statement to Reuters, a State Department spokesperson said Washington does not operate a censorship-circumvention programme specific to Europe. “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 said. The department denied that any announcement had been delayed and rejected suggestions that internal legal concerns had slowed the project. In the US, the Constitution offers sweeping protections for expression. By contrast, the European Union’s regulatory architecture — shaped in part by historical efforts to prevent the resurgence of extremist ideologies that fuelled Nazism — places stricter limits on hate speech, terrorist propaganda and certain forms of harmful disinformation. Brussels’ regulatory framework includes the Digital Services Act, which places obligations on large online platforms to remove illegal content swiftly and manage systemic risks. The UK has enacted its own regime under the Online Safety Act. US officials have criticised such rules as disproportionately targeting right-wing political voices. The administration has repeatedly accused European authorities of suppressing conservative politicians in countries including Romania, Germany and France. Tensions escalated in December when social media platform X, owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, was fined 120 million euros by EU regulators for non-compliance with content moderation requirements. Germany alone issued 482 removal orders in 2024 for material it deemed to support or incite terrorism, compelling providers to take down more than 16,000 pieces of content. In another example, Meta’s oversight board ordered the removal of posts by a Polish political party that used a racial slur and portrayed immigrants as rapists — a category of content EU law treats as illegal hate speech. India signed a five-year deal with the World Food Programme to supply up to 200,000 metric tonnes of rice for global humanitarian aid, reinforcing its role in fighting food insecurity and supporting vulnerable regions worldwide. Get the latest stories delivered straight to your inbox.