 "Social network words and social media logos are seen through magnifier displayed in this illustration taken, May 25, 2021. REUTERS")
A bunch of tech researchers filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Monday alleging that US President Donald Trump has adopted an unconstitutional policy targeting the foreign nationals who study disinformation and hate speech on social media for visa denials and deportation.
The San Francisco-based Coalition for Independent Technology Research argued in a lawsuit filed in a federal court in Washington that the administration’s policy unlawfully restricts the work of non-citizen researchers in the United States.
Tough action against researchers
The unconstitutionality was seen as a tough action against the researchers where Washington argues that the administration’s policy unlawfully chills the work of non-citizen researchers in the United States.
The group said that the US State Department, while claiming it is combating online censorship that Trump’s allies say has affected conservative speech on social media, is itself carrying out a brazen and wide-ranging campaign of censorship targeting researchers and anti-disinformation advocates.
What does the lawsuit propose?
The lawsuit proposes to ask a judge to block the policy on the grounds violating the US Constitution’s first amendment protections for free speech, Fifth Amendment promise of due process as well as requirements under a federal law called the Administrative Procedure Act.
Carrie DeCell, a lawyer for the coalition at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said, “The Trump administration is using the threat of detention and deportation to suppress speech it disfavors.”
A State Department spokesperson also said in a statement that the United States should not suffer by the presence of individuals who subvert the law, rules and deny our citizens their constitutional rights.
Free speech
The administration has made free speech a key focus of its foreign policy, especially what it views as the suppression of conservative voices online, including in Brazil and across Europe.
In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a visa ban on foreign nationals accused of being complicit in censoring Americans. He said some foreign officials had carried out flagrant censorship actions against U.S. tech companies and against US citizens and residents despite having no authority to do so.
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View AllIn December, the State Department imposed visa bans on five Europeans, including a former European Union commissioner and anti-disinformation activists who Rubio called “leading figures of the global censorship-industrial complex."
The department did so after EU tech regulators that month fined Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s social media company X 120 million euros ($140 million) in the first sanction imposed under the EU’s landmark Digital Services Act, which is intended to combat hateful speech, misinformation and disinformation.
Among those affected by the visa ban were Imran Ahmed, the British CEO of the US-based Center for Countering Digital Hate, and Clare Melford, co-founder of the Global Disinformation Index. The lawsuit said both organizations are members of the Coalition for Independent Technology Research.