Secretary of State Marco Rubio is fighting to ensure American tech companies retain sovereignty over foreign national’s data, Reuters reported Wednesday.
An internal diplomatic Rubio signed criticized the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as a prime example of imposing “unnecessarily burdensome data processing restrictions and cross-border data flow requirements,” according to Reuters. The message also said that laws attempting to take control of data from American tech companies would “disrupt global data flows, increase costs and cybersecurity risks, limit Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cloud services, and expand government control in ways that can undermine civil liberties and enable censorship.”
The cable also reportedly accused the Chinese government of packaging its technology with “restrictive data policies” in order to grow its sphere of influence, as well as its “access to international data for surveillance and strategic leverage,” Reuters reported. Diplomats have been tasked with tracking “proposals to restrict cross-border data flows and supplied talking points promoting the Global Cross-Border Privacy Rules Forum,” in order to “support the free flow of data and effective data protection and privacy globally.”
The Forum, established in 2022, states on its website that one of its goals is “facilitating data protection and the free flow of data globally.”
The Trump Administration launched “freedom.gov” in February 2026, reportedly an “online portal” to provide access to banned content in Europe, according to Reuters. The project’s website states, “Information is power. Reclaim your human right to free expression. Get ready.”
The State Department did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment regarding the cable or the online portal.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio waves as he departs Munich International Airport in Munich, southern Germany, on February 15, 2026, after attending the Munich Security Conference (MSC). (Photo by Alex Brandon / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose. The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship.
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) December 23, 2025
Today, @StateDept will take steps to…
Meanwhile, European leaders continue to crack down on speech. On a Feb 18. visit to India, French President Emmanuel Macron said, “Free speech is pure bullshit if nobody knows how you are guided to this so-called free speech, especially when it is guided from one hate speech to another.”
🚨The EU Censorship Files, Part II
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) February 3, 2026
For more than a year, the Committee has been warning that European censorship laws threaten U.S. free speech online.
Now, we have proof: Big Tech is censoring Americans’ speech in the U.S., including true information, to comply with Europe’s… pic.twitter.com/Fg0gxzoTxD
Rubio axed the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) in April 2025, an agency supposedly established to “diminish the influence of international terrorist organizations.” The secretary wrote in a press release that the agency “spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving.” Rubio said the GEC was “antithetical to the very principles we should be upholding” and it was “inconceivable it was taking place in America.”
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact
