{"id":45915,"date":"2025-12-26T05:48:32","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T05:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=45915"},"modified":"2025-12-26T05:48:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T05:48:32","slug":"c33mx6j5jrvoat_mediumrssat_campaignrss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2025\/12\/26\/c33mx6j5jrvoat_mediumrssat_campaignrss\/","title":{"rendered":"US judge blocks detention of British social media campaigner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">A US judge has temporarily stopped the Trump administration from detaining British activist Imran Ahmed after he sued officials over an entry ban for alleged online censorship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The founder of the Center for Countering Digital Hate is among five people denied US visas after the state department accused them of seeking to &#8220;coerce&#8221; tech platforms into censoring free speech.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The move brought a backlash from European leaders defending the work of organisations monitoring online content.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Mr Ahmed, a US permanent resident, had warned that being detained and possibly deported would tear him away from his American wife and child. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Praising the judge&#8217;s decision, he told BBC News he would not be &#8220;bullied&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said online that the individuals were blocked over concerns that they had organised efforts to pressure US platforms to censor and &#8220;punish American viewpoints they oppose&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Mr Ahmed filed a legal complaint on Wednesday against officials including Rubio and US Attorney General Pamela Bondi over the decision to have him sanctioned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">In court documents seen by the BBC, US District Judge Vernon S Broderick said on Thursday he had granted Mr Ahmed&#8217;s request for a temporary restraining order.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The judge also temporarily blocked the officials from detaining Mr Ahmed without the chance for his case to be heard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The BBC has contacted the state department and White House for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">When approached by AFP news agency, a state department spokesperson was quoted as saying: &#8220;The Supreme Court and Congress have repeatedly made clear: the United States is under no obligation to allow foreign aliens to come to our country or reside here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Mr Ahmed said: &#8220;I will not be bullied away from my life&#8217;s work of fighting to keep children safe from social media&#8217;s harm and stopping antisemitism online.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">His lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, said the speed of the judge&#8217;s decision was telling. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;The federal government can&#8217;t deport a green card holder like Imran Ahmed, with a wife and young child who are American, simply because it doesn&#8217;t like what he has to say,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">In 2023, Mr Ahmed&#8217;s centre was sued by Elon Musk&#8217;s social media company after it reported on a rise in hate speech on the platform since the billionaire&#8217;s takeover of the firm, now called X.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The case was dismissed but an appeal is pending. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#judge #blocks #detention #British #social #media #campaigner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A US judge has temporarily stopped the Trump administration from detaining British activist Imran Ahmed after he sued officials over&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45915"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45917,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45915\/revisions\/45917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}