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Arresting supporters of Palestine Action<\/a> is \u201ccensoring\u201d their free speech and \u201cdoes more harm than good\u201d, a Trump administration official has said.<\/p>\n Sarah Rogers, the US undersecretary for public diplomacy, was asked in an interview with the news platform Semafor whether the British government should allow supporters of the proscribed terror group to protest.<\/p>\n \u201cI would have to look at each individual person and each proscribed organisation,\u201d she said. \u201cI think if you support an organisation like Hamas, then depending upon whether you\u2019re coordinating, there are all these standards that get applied.<\/p>\n \u201cThis Palestine Action group, I\u2019ve seen it written about. I don\u2019t know what it did. I think if you just merely stand up and say, \u2018I support Palestine Action\u2019, then unless you are really coordinating with some violent foreign terrorist, I think that censoring that speech does more harm than good.\u201d<\/p>\n MPs voted to proscribe Palestine Action<\/a> as a terrorist organisation in July 2025, despite concerns that the move could risk criminalising legitimate protest, after the pro-Palestine group broke into RAF Brize Norton<\/a> and vandalised planes.<\/p>\n More than 2,000 people have been arrested for expressing support for Palestine Action since, many for holding signs reading: \u201cI oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.\u201d<\/p>\n Donald Trump\u2019s administration has been heavily criticised<\/a> for launching an unprecedented assault on free speech in the US, including arresting Mahmoud Khalil<\/a>, a former Columbia student and permanent resident who led pro-Palestinian protests in the US.<\/p>\n The president has said TV networks<\/a> that cover him \u201cnegatively\u201d could be punished by the government and proscribed antifa<\/a> as a \u201cdomestic terrorist organisation\u201d.<\/p>\n Rogers, along with senior members of the White House such as the vice-president, JD Vance, has been a persistent critic of a perceived lack of free speech in the UK<\/a>. She recently compared Britain under Labour to Vladimir Putin\u2019s Russia after Keir Starmer said Elon Musk\u2019s X could be banned<\/a> over its AI tool Grok editing pictures of real people to show them in revealing clothes such as bikinis.<\/p>\n