US building ‘Freedom.gov’ website to allow citizens of other countries to see banned content

The US is building an online portal that will let people see banned content, which might include websites of hate speech and terrorist propaganda.

The site, at Freedom.gov, will be a portal open to users in Europe and other places where regulators have banned specific websites for a host of reasons of reasons.

The US State Department sees the portal as an important way to back free speech and counter censorship, according to Reuters, which first reported the news.

Freedom.gov will allow people to browse as if they are in the US, and their data will not be tracked as they do so, it said.

A version of the website is now live, with a banner reading: “Information is power. Reclaim your human right to free expression. Get ready.”

The Trump government has made free speech a key part of its policy, and it has criticised other administrations such as those in Europe where regulators are more likely to restrict access to certain websites.

As such, it could lead to fallout between the US and those other countries, at a time of already high tensions.

In the European Union, regulators have banned websites promoting antisemitism and other extremist propaganda, for instance, using laws such as the EU’s Digital Services Act and the UK’s Online Safety Act.

Those laws also require large platforms such as Facebook and X to take down illegal hate speech quickly.

Germany, for example, in 2024 issued 482 removal orders for material it deemed supported or incited terrorism and forced providers to take down 16,771 pieces of content.

Similarly, Meta's oversight board in 2024 ordered the removal of a Polish political party's posts that used a racial slur and depicted immigrants as rapists, a content category EU law treats as illegal hate speech.