On August 18, 2026, the Knight Institute filed a FOIA lawsuit against the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and its Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) seeking records concerning OIRA’s decisions about social media disclosure requirements for foreign travelers and immigrants. The lawsuit follows OMB’s failure to produce records responsive to three FOIA requests the Institute submitted between 2024 and 2026.

During the first Trump administration, OIRA approved a proposal requiring nearly all visa applicants to disclose their social media identifiers to the State Department. During the Biden administration, OIRA rejected two similar Department of Homeland Security social media disclosure proposals, in one case after questioning the proposal’s usefulness. During the second Trump administration, the government sought again to institute a social media disclosure requirement on several of the exact same forms, and this time, without explanation, OIRA approved the request. The Institute’s lawsuit seeks records that could explain OIRA’s decisions, shed light on whether social media disclosure requirements are effective, and reveal what evidence or analysis, if any, supported OIRA’s reversal. Those records may also help the public evaluate the policies that affect millions of travelers and applicants for visas and immigration benefits and implicate important First Amendment interests.

The lawsuit builds on the Knight Institute’s broader work challenging the government’s use of social media information in visa vetting. The Institute is also pursuing a related FOIA lawsuit.

Status: Complaint filed on August 18, 2026.

Case Information: Knight First Amendment Inst. at Columbia Univ. v. Off. of Mgmt. & Budget, No. TK-cv-TKTK (S.D.N.Y.).