US to roll out visa restrictions on people who misuse spyware to target journalists, activists

The Biden administration is rolling out a new policy that will allow it to impose visa restrictions on foreign individuals involved in the misuse of commercial spyware

WASHINGTON -- The Biden administration announced Monday it is rolling out a new policy that will allow it to impose visa restrictions on foreign individuals involved in the misuse of commercial spyware.

The administration's policy will apply to people who’ve been involved in the misuse of commercial spyware to target individuals including journalists, activists, perceived dissidents, members of marginalized communities, or the family members of those who are targeted. The visa restrictions could also apply to people who facilitate or get financial benefit from the misuse of commercial spyware, officials said.

“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,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement announcing the new policy. “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.”

Biden issued another executive order nearly a year ago restricting the U.S. government's use of commercial spyware “that poses risks to national security."

That order required the head of any U.S. agency using commercial programs to certify that they don't pose a significant counterintelligence or other security risk, a senior administration official said. It was issued as the White House acknowledged a surge in hacks of U.S. government employees, across 10 countries, that had been compromised or targeted by commercial spyware.