State Department Protects Americans' Speech by Targeting Foreign Censors
A new visa restriction policy can help close a key backdoor for silencing critics of the Ruling Class
State Department Protects Americans’ Speech By Restricting Visas For Foreign Censors
o foreigner who targets Americans’ speech should have an inalienable right to come to our country and enjoy the freedoms he would deny us. Now, that is official U.S. policy.
Last Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Foggy Bottom will impose visa restrictions on two groups of global censors.
The first includes those officials who “issue or threaten arrest warrants on U.S. citizens or U.S. residents for social media posts on American platforms while physically present on U.S. soil.” The second includes those officials who “demand that American tech platforms adopt global content moderation policies or engage in censorship activity that reaches beyond their authority and into the United States.” The policy may apply to family members, too, making it even more potent.
The Trump administration’s targeting of foreign censors marks a significant departure from a Biden administration that not only tolerated but coordinated with global speech police.
In The Federalist, I explain why this effort to deter the foreign speech police marks such a pivotal shift in policy — one that could prevent the censors from accessing a critical backdoor for silencing Americans.