Facebook sues Chinese individuals for ad fraud
The Trump administration was sued on Thursday over a controversial new policy requiring foreigners to share their social media accounts when they apply for U.S. visas.
The lawsuit, filed by civil liberties advocates representing two U.S.-based documentary filmmaking groups, alleges the administration is violating constitutional free speech rights and stripping away any semblance of online privacy in the name of vetting new entrants to the country, some of which already have strong ties to the U.S.
The plaintiffs are alleging the rule, which requires visa applicants to submit their social media handles across 20 online services to the U.S. government, has created a “far-reaching digital surveillance regime that enables the U.S. government to monitor visa applicants’ constitutionally protected speech and associations not just at the time they apply for visas, but even after they enter the United States.”
Free speech advocates filed the lawsuit on behalf of two documentary filmmaking groups, Doc Society and the International Documentary Association (IDA), which have close ties to documentarians and journalists in other countries. Doc Society and the IDA say their partners in other countries are no longer willing to share their opinions or sensitive information online, for fear that “a U.S. official will misinterpret their speech on social media.”
The State Department first announced the new rule in 2018 and it went into effect earlier this year, raising a litany of concerns around whether the government should be allowed to collect social media information as it vets potential new entrants to the country.
