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A new visa restriction policy has been announced in the US that will prevent individuals who have been involved in the misuse of commercial spyware from entering the country.
The new policy was announced by Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, who said the ban was in the best interests of US national security.
“The State Department is implementing a new policy today that will allow the imposition of visa restrictions on individuals involved in the misuse of commercial spyware,” said Blinken in a press statement.
“The United States remains concerned with the growing misuse of commercial spyware around the world to facilitate repression, restrict the free flow of information, and enable human rights abuses. The misuse of commercial spyware threatens privacy and freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, and association.
“Such targeting has been linked to arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings in the most egregious of cases. Additionally, the misuse of these tools presents a security and counterintelligence threat to US personnel.”
The new visa restriction comes a year after an executive order issued by the Biden administration that outlaws the use of commercial spyware by the government if it threatens foreign policy or national security interests was signed.
“Executive departments and agencies (agencies) shall not make operational use of commercial spyware where they determine, based on credible information, that such use poses significant counterintelligence or security risks to the United States government or that the commercial spyware poses significant risks of improper use by a foreign government or foreign person,” wrote US President Joe Biden in a White House statement issued last year.
In addition, last year, the Biden administration, alongside 36 other governments as part of the Freedom Online Coalition, released guiding principles for governments to prevent surveillance technology from being misused.
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