Technology Researchers Challenge Trump Policy Threatening Deportation for Work on Social Media Platforms and Online Harms
Publish Date: 2026-03-09 12:35:00
Source Domain: knightcolumbia.org
WASHINGTON—The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and Protect Democracy today filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of the Coalition for Independent Technology Research (CITR) challenging the constitutionality of a new U.S. immigration policy that targets noncitizen researchers, advocates, fact-checkers, and trust and safety workers for visa denials, revocations, detention, and deportation based on their work researching and reporting on social media platforms. The group alleges that the policy, which purportedly aims to combat “censorship” of Americans’ speech on the internet, violates the First Amendment and chills independent research about social media and other internet platforms.
“The Trump administration is using the threat of detention and deportation to suppress speech it disfavors,” said Carrie DeCell, senior staff attorney and legislative advisor at the Knight First Amendment Institute. “By targeting researchers and advocates for their work studying and reporting on social media platforms and online harms, the policy chills protected speech and distorts public debate about issues of profound public importance.”
Since his first term, President Trump and his allies have characterized the content moderation decisions of privately owned social media platforms as a form of “censorship” reflecting anti-conservative bias. In May 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a visa restriction policy aimed at foreign officials and other individuals who are allegedly “complicit in censoring Americans.” In early December 2025, news outlets reported that the State Department had instructed U.S. consular officers to scrutinize visa applicants—particularly H-1B applicants—for evidence of their work in fields including misinformation, disinformation, fact-checking, content moderation, trust and safety, and compliance, and to pursue findings of visa ineligibility if they deemed applicants…
