British online campaigner vows to fight US deportation threat

A British online campaigner hit by US sanctions has launched a legal battle against deportation by Donald Trump’s administration.

Former Labour adviser Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), said he was “proud to call the United States my home”.

Mr Ahmed was one of a group of people involved in campaigns to tackle disinformation and hate speech online who were hit with visa sanctions, with US secretary of state Marco Rubio accusing them of leading “efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose”.

Senior State Department figures have accused the group of seeking to censor online platforms such as Elon Musk’s X.

Mr Ahmed, who lives in Washington DC, said: “My life’s work is to protect children from the dangers of unregulated social media and AI and fight the spread of antisemitism online.

“That mission has pitted me against big tech executives – and Elon Musk in particular – multiple times.

“I am proud to call the United States my home. My wife and daughter are American, and instead of spending Christmas with them, I am fighting to prevent my unlawful deportation from my home country.”

Sarah Rogers, the US undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, said Mr Ahmed was sanctioned because he was a “key collaborator” with Joe Biden’s administration’s efforts to “weaponise the government” against US citizens.

She said the CCDH had called for social media sites to “de-platform” anti-vaccine campaigners – including the now health secretary Robert F Kennedy – and had backed measures, including the UK’s Online Safety Act, “to expand censorship” around the world.

Mr Ahmed’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan said her client “has dedicated his life to protecting people (including children) from the violence and misinformation flooding social media”.

She said: “He has been particularly prescient in warning against the dangerous spread of antisemitism. That mission means he sometimes faces off against powerful tech billionaires who don’t like criticism, like Elon Musk.

“The State Department’s actions here are unjustified and blatantly unconstitutional.

“Imran is proud to call the United States his home. Instead of spending Christmas with his wife and child, he has been forced to spend the holiday fighting to prevent his unlawful deportation. It is hard to think of anything more un-American than that.”

Mr Ahmed has filed a complaint in the Southern District of New York against Mr Rubio, Ms Rogers, US attorney general Pam Bondi and secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem to prevent their attempt to arrest and expel him from the country.

Oxford graduate Clare Melford, who leads the UK-based Global Disinformation Index (GDI), was also barred from entering the US under the sanctions.

A GDI spokesperson said the visa sanctions on Ms Melford were “an authoritarian attack on free speech and an egregious act of government censorship”.

“The Trump administration is, once again, using the full weight of the federal government to intimidate, censor and silence voices they disagree with. Their actions today are immoral, unlawful and un-American.”

The Trump administration has signalled the sanctions could be followed by further action, potentially targeting serving politicians or officials.

Other Europeans hit with travel bans were the former EU commissioner responsible for supervising social media rules, Thierry Breton, and Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, leaders of German organisation HateAid.

Mr Ahmed has links to senior Labour figures, having worked as an adviser to now-Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn during his time as shadow foreign secretary.

Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, was listed as a director at the CCDH before resigning in April 2020, according to Companies House records.

Dame Chi Onwurah, Labour chairwoman of the Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, said: “Imran Ahmed gave evidence to the select committee’s inquiry into social media, algorithms and harmful content. He was an articulate advocate for greater regulation and accountability.

“Banning him won’t shut down the debate, too many people are being harmed by the spread of digital hate.”

The action to bar them from the US is part of a Trump administration campaign against foreign influence over online speech, using immigration law against its targets.

Mr Rubio said: “For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organised efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose.

“The Trump administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship.”

Ms Rogers hinted the action could spread wider: “None of those sanctioned is a current UK or EU official, however, we know that foreign government officials are actively targeting the United States.

“This week, the UK’s Liberal Democrats claimed President Trump’s national security strategy amounts to foreign interference by a hostile foreign state because it correctly identifies mass migration and decaying national sovereignty as existential European security concerns.”

The Lib Dems’ foreign affairs spokesman, Calum Miller, said: “These sanctions are an attack on free speech and amount to bullying tactics. The Government must stand up for its citizens, not stay silent.”

A UK Government spokesperson said: “While every country has the right to set its own visa rules, we support the laws and institutions which are working to keep the internet free from the most harmful content.”