U.S. Department of State

Beginning in 2025, the State Department under Secretary Marco Rubio pursued a policy of denying or revoking visas for foreign nationals -- including researchers, fact-checkers, and officials -- deemed to have been 'involved or complicit in censoring American citizens,' invoking a rarely-used INA provision on foreign-policy-related inadmissibility. The policy targeted individuals who had worked on content moderation, disinformation research, or pressured US tech platforms on content policy, and was later expanded to include enhanced social-media and work-history vetting for H-1B visa applicants. Groups including the Coalition for Independent Technology Research and several international students sued, arguing the policy was unconstitutionally vague and punished protected speech and research; in 2026 a federal judge (Boasberg) blocked enforcement on First Amendment grounds. The State Department defended the policy, saying 'an American visa is a privilege not a right,' and moved to dismiss the litigation.