Trump to Deport Boss of Starmer-Linked Censorship Organisation Centre for Countering Digital Hate

Donald Trump’s White House is poised to deport the boss of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, an internet censorship organisation founded by Sir Keir Starmer’s Chief of Staff, Morgan McSweeney. The Telegraph has the story.

Imran Ahmed, the Chief Executive of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), is facing deportation from the United States, after his charity pushed for restrictions on what can be published online.

The CCDH has campaigned for the deplatforming of Trump administration officials and tighter policing of offensive content posted online. Mr McSweeney helped found the organisation before he quit to work for Sir Keir.

The organisation’s demands have raised alarm within Donald Trump’s administration.

Mr Ahmed, a former Labour Party aide, has now been placed at the “top of the list” of people being considered for visa restrictions, the Telegraph understands.

The state and justice departments along with the White House are understood to be weighing the decision to restrict Mr Ahmed’s visa.

A source with knowledge of the discussions said: “They want to send a message that they’re not having it. They’re not happy. They are very actively considering visa restrictions on him.”

The move is the latest example of Mr Trump’s willingness to clamp down on British nationals complicit in censoring American citizens.

Earlier this year, Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, warned that foreign nationals face being banned from the United States if they are found to have breached the free speech rights of American citizens.

The CCDH, which has charitable status in the US, claims to “disrupt the spread of digital hate and misinformation”, with branches in both the UK and the US.

Mr Ahmed, who works in the Washington office, but is understood to run the entire transnational operation, has found himself in the crosshairs of some of the President’s closest allies, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr and Elon Musk.

In 2021, the group named Mr Kennedy, the current Health Secretary, as one of its “Disinformation Dozen”, a list of 12 people it claimed should have their accounts removed from social media for posting anti‑vaccine content.

Leaked documents, thought to have been drawn up by the CCDH, also reportedly listed “kill Musk’s Twitter” as one of the group’s annual priorities last year.

The non-profit published a series of highly critical reports linking Mr Musk’s takeover of the platform, now known as X, to rising misinformation and hate speech that was “spreading like wildfire”.

Worth reading in full.