The State Department is instructing staff to reject visa applications from people who worked on fact-checking, content moderation or other activities the Trump administration labels “censorship” of Americans’ speech.
The directive, in an internal memo circulated Tuesday, targets applicants for H-1B visas for highly skilled workers — a category commonly used by tech companies. The memo, first reported by Reuters and obtained by NPR, says: “If you uncover evidence an applicant was responsible for, or complicit in, censorship or attempted censorship of protected expression in the United States, you should pursue a finding that the applicant is ineligible” for a visa. It cites a May policy announced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio restricting visas for “foreign officials and persons who are complicit in censoring Americans.”
The Trump administration has repeatedly criticized technology companies’ content policies and broader trust-and-safety work, which aims to limit abuse, fraud, illegal content and other harmful behavior online. Officials point to past actions such as social media platforms’ bans of President Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack as evidence that companies can unfairly silence Americans — a claim that has driven calls to curb perceived bias in moderation even as some tech firms have loosened policies under political pressure.
The memo singles out H-1B applicants “as many work in or have worked in the tech sector, including in social media or financial services companies involved in the suppression of protected expression.” It directs consular officers to “thoroughly explore” applicants’ work histories by reviewing resumes, LinkedIn profiles and media mentions for activities including combating misinformation, disinformation or false narratives, fact-checking, content moderation, compliance, and trust and safety.
Critics warn the guidance conflates legitimate safety work with censorship. Alice Goguen Hunsberger, who has worked in trust and safety for companies including OpenAI and Grindr, said she was “alarmed that trust and safety work is being conflated with ‘censorship’.” She noted trust-and-safety teams perform critical tasks such as protecting children and stopping child sexual abuse material (CSAM), preventing fraud, scams and sextortion, and that international expertise is vital to keeping Americans safer.
A State Department spokesperson, declining to comment on “allegedly leaked documents,” said the administration defends Americans’ freedom of expression against foreigners who would censor them and “does not support aliens coming to the United States to work as censors muzzling Americans.” The statement added that the president, having been the victim of account locks in the past, does not want other Americans to suffer similar harms.
First Amendment experts also criticized the memo. Carrie DeCell, senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said people who study misinformation and work on content moderation “aren’t engaged in ‘censorship’ — they’re engaged in activities that the First Amendment was designed to protect,” calling the policy “incoherent and unconstitutional.”
The directive comes as the administration has also expanded scrutiny of visa applicants’ online speech. On Wednesday, the State Department announced it will require H-1B visa applicants and their dependents to set social media profiles to public so U.S. officials can review them.
NPR’s Bobby Allyn and Michele Kelemen contributed reporting.