The United States announced new visa restrictions

, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced new visa restrictions for people who have abused commercial spyware.

According to The new policy allows the State Department to restrict visa issuance to individuals who have been involved in commercial spyware abuse cases.

Also, people who were involved in facilitating such actions or benefited from these actions are included in this visa restriction.

US officials have claimed the new policy is part of a broader effort to shape the behavior of foreign governments and private companies that engage in malicious digital espionage activities. Historically, these companies have been accused of developing platforms that facilitate the hacking of human rights activists, journalists and political opponents in developing countries.

A senior US government official said investors and operators of commercial spyware believed to have been abused would be included in the new policy. At least 50 US government officials said that they have been hacked in recent years.

Also, this new policy includes a wide group of people. that in hacking operations in some forms of monitoring, harassing, suppressing or intimidating people such as journalists, activists, people who seem to be opposed because of their actions, members of marginalized communities or vulnerable populations, or family members of affected people

While President Biden signed an executive order last year, according to which the malicious use of spying tools Digital banned worldwide against US authorities and civil society. In this executive order, American entities are prohibited from doing any commercial transactions with these companies and their commercial capabilities are limited.

In addition In 2021 and 2023, the US Department of Commerce added the names of some regulatory companies to its economic trade blacklist.

In March last year, the United States and some of its allies called for strict international and domestic restrictions to deal with the proliferation and abuse of spyware. commercialized.

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