Two British anti-hate speech campaigners sanctioned by US state department – UK politics live

Imran Ahmed and Clare Melford among five Europeans hit with visa bans over claims they wish to ‘suppress American viewpoints they oppose’

And this is what Sarah Rogers, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy at the US state department, said on her social media thread last night about why Clare Melford is being sanctioned.

WE’VE SANCTIONED: Clare Melford. She leads Global Disinformation Index (GDI), a UK-based organization that monitors websites for “hate speech” and “disinformation”. If you question Canadian blood libels about residential schools, you’re engaging in “hate speech” according to Melford and GDI. This NGO used @StateDept taxpayer money to exhort censorship and blacklisting of American speech and press. They also joined the deleterious EU Code of Practice on Disinformation.

Rogers’ tweet also includes this picture of an extract from a GDI report published in September 2025 on hate speech and bigotry in Canada.

Here is the full passage.