“We already knew that the policy of requiring visa applicants to register their social media handles infringed the expressive and associational rights of millions of people, but now we know that the policy is totally ineffective as well,” said Anna Diakun, a Knight Institute staff attorney. “It’s long past time for this intrusive surveillance policy to be retired.”

In 2019, the State Department started requiring almost all visa applicants to provide the social media handles that they’ve used in the five years preceding their applications. The Trump administration instituted this policy as part of its extreme vetting initiative, and the Biden administration has continued it. Though President Biden ordered a report assessing the utility of social media handles in visa vetting on his first day in office, the administration has yet to disclose its findings.

Included in today’s documents is an April 2021 email chain concerning the National Counterterrorism Center’s (NCTC) assessment that its use of social media identifiers in the vetting process has “very little impact on improving the screening accuracy of relevant systems.” An ODNI official raises concerns that the current language in the report “will reflect a negative perspective on the usefulness of social media identifiers,” noting that “the NGO’s [sic] are planning on gaining access to this report.” The participants on the email chain then discuss “recrafting the language” of NCTC’s assessment.

In 2019, the Knight Institute, Brennan Center for Justice, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett filed a lawsuit on behalf of two documentary film organizations—Doc Society and the International Documentary Association—challenging the State Department’s mandatory collection of social media handles on the grounds that it infringes on filmmakers’ freedom of expression and interferes with Americans’ ability to engage with artists, advocates, and others located abroad. A federal district court dismissed this lawsuit in August. The documents released today call into question whether the government believes the social media registration requirement is necessary, or even effective, in conducting the visa vetting process. 

Read the newly released documents:

• April 8–9, 2021, ODNI Email Chain
• Undated version of NCTC Report Contribution  

Read the Knight Institute’s February 2022 FOIA request here.

Read more about the Knight Institute’s April 2022 FOIA lawsuit, Knight Institute v. State Department here.  

Lawyers on the case include Diakun, Carrie DeCell, and Hannah Vester of the Knight First Amendment Institute.

For more information, contact: Adriana Lamirande, adriana.lamirande@knightcolumbia.org. 

In 2019, the Trump administration instituted new rules that require almost 15 million visa applicants each year to disclose any social media handles they’ve used in the past five years on 20 different platforms. The State Department implemented this requirement as part of President Trump’s so-called “extreme vetting” initiative, instituted alongside the Muslim ban. Civil society organizations raised alarm bells about the new policy, and the Knight Institute filed suit on behalf of two documentary film organizations to challenge the constitutionality of the requirement, arguing that it chills filmmakers’ speech and association online and deters some from traveling to the United States at all.

Upon taking office, Biden revoked the Trump executive orders that authorized the Muslim ban, calling them a “moral blight that has dulled the power of our example the world over.” At the same time, he ordered a review of the State Department’s and the Department of Homeland Security’s use of social media handles in the visa vetting process, including “an assessment of whether this use has meaningfully improved” the process. The Knight Institute hoped this meant the Biden administration was seriously considering eliminating—or at least curtailing—this dragnet collection of social media information.

We were wrong. Instead of rescinding this Trump-era policy, the Biden administration decided to double down. It’s now seeking to expand the requirement to another 15 million people per year who apply to enter the United States under the Visa Waiver Program.

Despite the serious ramifications this requirement has for the freedoms of speech and association online, the Biden administration hasn’t meaningfully justified its use. And while the report could shed light on the administration’s reasoning (or lack thereof), the State Department is instead hiding the report from view, relying on a slew of FOIA exemptions to withhold it in full. This is unacceptable. The public deserves answers, and it shouldn’t take a lawsuit to get them.