MIT Technology Review is reporting that researchers who study and counter online hate speech, harassment, propaganda and disinformation are fighting back against the Trump administration's policies through a lawsuit that recently made its first court appearance. The Coalition for Independent Technology Research (CITR) is suing Secretary of State Marco Rubio, former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and former Attorney General Pam Bondi, asking the court to strike down a visa restriction policy as unconstitutional.
The fight began a year ago when Rubio announced on X a “visa restriction policy” against “foreign officials and other persons” complicit in “censoring Americans.” Since then, several foreign officials and researchers have been barred from U.S. travel, and the policy could theoretically affect anyone in fact-checking or online trust and safety. Carrie DeCell, a lawyer representing the researchers, said outside the courthouse in Washington, D.C., on May 13, that the policy is “expansive and incredibly vague, and the chilling effects are correspondingly enormous.” DeCell told MIT Technology Review that the Trump administration is effectively “using immigration law to punish people for expressing views that it disagrees with.”
The plaintiffs argue the policy violates the speech and due process rights of foreign-born tech researchers and workers whose “work supports greater moderation of content on the [tech] platforms.” They are asking the government to halt these visa restrictions while the case proceeds. Zachariah Lindsey, the assistant U.S. attorney representing the defendants, argued in last week’s hearing that the government is not targeting speech but “conduct [that] is assisting or facilitating foreign government censorship of free speech.” The government has filed a motion to dismiss the case, and the judge has yet to rule on either motion.
MIT Technology Review said the Trump administration has claimed to be a victim of a “censorship-industrial complex” involving government agencies, civil society groups, academics and tech platforms that allegedly censor conservative voices. The State Department claims Rubio implemented the immigration policy under the Immigration and Nationality Act, which authorizes rendering inadmissible any alien whose entry “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” The administration first deployed the policy in July 2025, revoking visas for Brazilian judicial officials involved in prosecuting former President Jair Bolsonaro. In December 2025, the State Department issued instructions to reject H-1B visa applications from individuals in fact-checking, online trust and safety, and mis- or disinformation research. It also announced visa restrictions for five Europeans, including CITR members Imran Ahmed and Clare Melford, whom it accused of censoring Americans.
Eirliani Abdul Rahman, a Singaporean online safety expert and CITR member, left the U.S. for Germany due to the policy and a perceived “funding desert” for research on mis/disinformation. She said the travel bans on Europeans felt like “a gut punch” and were “the last straw.” Nicole Schneidman, head of Protect Democracy’s technology and data governance team, said the outcome of the case may affect public knowledge about social media and AI risks, as these workers “serve a really, really important function in educating the public, holding tech companies accountable, doing research on the ramifications that advanced technology has on our society.”
Full Article: Tech researchers are suing the Trump administration over the future of online safety