- The United States is building a site to help users outside the United States access prohibited content
- US officials are discussing integrating a VPN feature
- Freedom.gov project has faced delays due to legal concerns
The Trump administration is reportedly developing a new government-operated website designed specifically to help internet users in Europe and elsewhere bypass local content restrictions.
According to a PakGazette report, the project, hosted on Freedom.govaims to provide access to material that foreign governments have banned, including what some jurisdictions classify as “alleged hate speech and terrorist propaganda.”
The move marks a significant escalation in the ideological conflict between Washington and Brussels. While the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) requires platforms to remove illegal content and disinformation, the Trump administration views these regulations as targeted censorship of American voices.
Public Diplomacy Undersecretary Sarah Rogers is reportedly overseeing the project, which was expected to be launched at last week’s Munich Security Conference but was delayed. Sources told PakGazette that some State Department lawyers have expressed concerns about the plan, which could be seen as an attempt by the US government to actively encourage citizens of allied nations to violate their local laws.
Integrated VPN capabilities expected
The most technically significant aspect of the proposal is the circumvention method. Officials reportedly plan to integrate virtual private network (VPN) functionality directly into the portal.
A source familiar with the plan told PakGazette that officials had discussed including a feature to “make a user’s traffic appear to originate in the US.” and confirmed that “user activity on the site will not be tracked.”
If implemented, this would effectively make the US State Department a sort of better VPN provider, allowing users to leave their local digital borders to access content hosted in the US. Commercial VPNs are currently the primary tool for such evasion, but a state-sponsored tool represents a new frontier in digital diplomacy.
While the State Department denied that the program is specific to Europe, a spokesperson told PakGazette: “However, digital freedom is a priority for the State Department, and that includes the proliferation of privacy and censorship circumvention technologies like VPNs.”
Currently, the Freedom.gov domain displays a “National Design Studio” logo and the phrase “fly, eagle, fly.”
‘A direct shot’ at EU regulations
The move comes amid broader diplomatic fallout. Relations have been strained by trade disputes, Russia’s war in Ukraine and President Trump’s attempt to assert his control over Greenland.
The conflict has also attracted important technology figures. Edward Coristine, formerly of Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), is reportedly working with the National Design Studio on the Freedom.gov project. The studio itself was created by the president to “beautify government websites.”
Musk himself has frequently clashed with European regulators, and his X platform was fined $140 million by the EU in December for failing to comply with transparency rules.
Kenneth Propp, a former State Department official who now sits on the Atlantic Council, described the new portal to PakGazette as “a direct shot” at European regulations, warning that it “would be perceived in Europe as a US effort to thwart provisions of national laws.”
European regulators often require US-based sites to remove content as a measure of last resort. For example, in 2024, Germany issued 482 removal orders for material it considered to support terrorism. The new US portal appears designed specifically to undermine those orders by providing a permanent loophole hosted in the United States.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
