The State Department moved to exclude or deport five noncitizen researchers under a visa policy targeting online 'censorship'

On December 23, 2025, the State Department announced that it would exclude or deport five individuals under a visa-restriction policy, among them two leaders of organizations belonging to the Coalition for Independent Technology Research (CITR), a group whose members research disinformation, content moderation, and trust and safety. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had first announced the policy on May 28, 2025, describing it as targeting "foreign officials who are responsible for censorship of protected expression in the United States" and citing a need "to secure the right of the American people to engage in constitutionally protected speech." The Department first invoked it in July 2025 to revoke the visa of a Brazilian Supreme Court justice, then, according to CITR, expanded it into a broader campaign against noncitizens whose work touches misinformation, fact-checking, content moderation, compliance, and trust and safety. Announcing the December action, Rubio warned that the Department "stands ready and willing to expand" the list if others did not "reverse course." [1, 3]

The policy reached beyond officials wielding state power over speech to reach private researchers, advocates, nonprofit leaders, and trust-and-safety professionals. In a lawsuit filed March 9, 2026 by the Knight First Amendment Institute and Protect Democracy, CITR described members who left the country, stopped traveling internationally, ceased publishing on their research, or shifted to "politically neutral" topics for fear of visa denial, detention, or deportation — accounts the complaint said reflected "pervasive fear" and a chilling effect on independent research and advocacy. The State Department had also instructed consular officers to scrutinize visa applicants, particularly H-1B applicants, for evidence of work in those fields. [1, 2]

The First Amendment reserves to individuals — including noncitizens present in the United States — the right to research, report, and advocate free of government penalty based on viewpoint. The Standing records this event because the government deployed immigration authority, rather than any charge tied to unlawful conduct, against people for the content of their protected work, labeling disinformation research a form of foreign "censorship" and using exclusion and deportation as the instrument.

Updates

2026-07-14 — Federal judge froze the policy as viewpoint discrimination [3, 4]

On July 14, 2026, Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of the District of Columbia granted CITR a preliminary injunction freezing enforcement of the policy, finding in a 58-page opinion that it "clearly violates the First Amendment" as viewpoint discrimination. Boasberg wrote that the policy sweeps "a substantial measure of the research, reporting, advocacy and association" through which such groups do protected work into the category of "foreign censorship" on the basis of viewpoint. The ruling freezes the policy's enforcement while the litigation, Coalition for Independent Technology Research v. Rubio, continues. [3, 4]