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Spyware dealers could face visa restrictions


The restrictions are part of a broader crackdown on spyware companies.

“These individuals have facilitated or derived financial benefit from the misuse of this technology, which has targeted journalists, academics, human rights defenders, dissidents and other perceived critics, and U.S. Government personnel,” the department’s release read. The looming visa restrictions are the result of a policy implemented by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in February and were issued under Section 212 (a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which lets the government deem foreign nationals inadmissible if granting them a visa “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” Intellexa’s Predator spyware was used to target journalists, human rights workers, and even two members of Congress, an October 2023 Amnesty International report found.

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