U.S. To Deny Visas Against Those Who Misuse Spyware To Target Journalists, Activists

The Biden administration announced on Monday that it will deny U.S. visas to foreign nationals who are believed to be involved in the misuse of commercial spyware against journalists, rights activists and others, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

“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 vsa restrictions will apply to people who've been involved in the misuse of commercial spyware to target individuals including journalists, perceived dissidents, or the family members of those who are targeted. It could also apply to people who facilitate or get financial benefit from the misuse of commercial spyware, senior administration officials told reporters.

"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," Blinken noted.

The State Department will make visa decisions "on a case-by-case basis" after reviewing credible information about an individual’s involvement in supplying or profiting from the use of spyware, officials said.

Perhaps the best-known example of spyware, the Pegasus software from Israel's NSO Group, which was used to target more than 1,000 people across 50 countries, including Azerbaijan, according to security researchers and a July 2021 global media investigation, citing a list of more than 50,000 cell phone numbers.

The U.S. has already blacklisted NSO from use in the U.S. in 2021 for its malicious cyber activities.