US diplomats met officials from the State’s social media watchdog, Coimisiún na Meán, to “better understand” what the regulator does.
The meeting comes against a backdrop of increasing tensions between the administration of US president Donald Trump and the European Union over Washington’s pushback against regulation and what is considers to be censorship of free speech in Europe.
The Trump administration has criticised fines imposed on American technological companies by the EU, accusing Brussels of “economic extortion” through regulation that the US will not tolerate.
Coimisiún na Meán said on Wednesday some of its staff met “representatives from the US State Department on May 30th, 2025, following a request from the US Embassy to better understand An Coimisiún’s functions and international collaboration”.
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Coimisiún na Meán said it “regularly engages with other governments and regulators about our remit and ongoing work”.
“The officials from the US State Department did not seek any changes to any aspect of An Coimisiún’s regulatory work at this meeting, nor did they express any concerns in relation to it,” the watchdog told The Irish Times.
Over recent months the Trump administration has strongly hit out at what it sees as attempts to censor free speech on US-owned social media platforms.
Last week secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US would impose visa bans on foreign nationals it deemed to be censoring Americans.
He suggested the new policy could target officials regulating US tech companies.
Mr Rubio said in a statement that a new visa restriction policy would apply to foreign nationals responsible for censorship of protected expression in the US. He said it was unacceptable for foreign officials to issue or threaten arrest warrants for social media posts made on US soil.
“It is similarly unacceptable for foreign officials to demand that American tech platforms adopt global content moderation policies or engage in censorship activity that reaches beyond their authority and into the United States,” he said.
