The State Department has issued guidance directing consular staff to deny visas to some applicants who worked on fact-checking, content moderation or other activities the administration characterizes as censoring American speech. An internal memo sent Tuesday, first reported by Reuters and obtained by NPR, concentrates on H-1B visas used by many highly skilled tech workers and tells officers to pursue findings of ineligibility when they find evidence an applicant was responsible for or complicit in censoring or attempting to censor protected expression in the United States.
The memo cites a May policy announced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio restricting visas for foreign officials and others deemed complicit in censoring Americans. It singles out H-1B applicants in part because many have worked in the tech sector, including social media and financial services companies that the administration says have suppressed protected expression.
Consular officers are instructed to thoroughly review applicants benefits pages, resumes, LinkedIn profiles and media mentions and probe work histories for roles described as combating misinformation or disinformation, fact-checking, content moderation, compliance, trust and safety, and related activities.
Critics say the memo conflates ordinary trust-and-safety work with censorship and would undermine online safety. Alice Goguen Hunsberger, a trust-and-safety professional who has worked at OpenAI and Grindr, noted that the field includes life-saving efforts to protect children and stop child sexual abuse material as well as fraud and scam prevention, and warned that losing global expertise would make Americans less safe. First Amendment experts have also blasted the guidance. Carrie DeCell of Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute said researchers and moderation staff are engaged in activities the First Amendment was designed to protect and called the policy incoherent and unconstitutional.
A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on allegedly leaked documents but said the administration aims to defend Americans’ freedom of expression against foreigners who would censor them and will not endorse aliens coming to the United States to work as censors. The guidance arrives amid broader administration scrutiny of tech platforms and content moderation, a debate intensified by former President Trump’s 2021 suspensions from social platforms. Separately, the State Department said it will require H-1B applicants and their dependents to make social media profiles public so U.S. officials can review them.