The United States has stepped up pressure on European policymakers over the regulation of American technology companies, accusing Dutch organisations for the first time of attempting to censor US firms.

In a report published on Tuesday, the US House of Representatives’ justice committee said the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) amounted to censorship and infringed Americans’ right to free speech.

The law, the committee said, was being used to suppress “true information and political speech” on issues including Covid-19, migration and transgender rights.

The 160-page report includes a short chapter on the Netherlands. It claims that a meeting organised by the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) ahead of the 2025 parliamentary elections and involving experts and campaign groups, was an attempt to restrict free speech.

The ACM is responsible for supervising the DSA in the Netherlands.

The committee also describes organisations that attended the meeting, which included digital rights group Bits of Freedom and the foundation Justice for Prosperity, as “censorious NGOs”.

“The  ACM and the European Commission clearly expected platforms to take significant censorship steps ahead of the election,” the report said.

Justice for Prosperity director Jelle Postma told the Volkskrant that the accusations are “a deliberate attack on our democratic rule of law” and the US is seeking to undermine the legitimacy of lawmakers, regulators and civil society organisations.

“This is pure intimidation,” Postma said. “We must be able to decide for ourselves how our society is organised and how rules are enforced.” If American companies want to operate in Europe, he said, they must comply with European law.”

The European Commission has already fined X for failing to meet transparency requirements and US committee members have said they are investigating what they describe as foreign interference in American innovation and free expression.