Digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the Trump administration over the government’s alleged social media monitoring of people who are lawfully living in the United States.
The suit contends that the government is using AI and other methods to watch the social media posts of virtually every single non-citizen who is in the United States legally and on a valid visa, as well as many people who have obtained permanent resident status. The U.S. government is, according to these allegations, looking for posts that express views that the current government disfavors.
The lawsuit states that the list of forbidden posts include those that criticize the American culture and the U.S. government; that express antisemitic/pro-Palestine support, including support of university protests on the matter; those that rationalize or make light of Charlie Kirk’s murder; or that criticize the Trump administration or its actions.
The EFF also alleges that the government is threatening non-citizens with punishments, which includes revoking their visas to immigration confinement.
The lawsuit points to posts on the State Department’s X account. This includes the currently pinned thread documenting the visas that the department revoked over comments about Charlie Kirk.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of the auto union, teachers union, and communication workers union.
The EFF’s suit claims that these punitive actions, as well as the “viewpoint based” surveillance itself, is an unlawful violation of freedom of speech of these unions’ members.
The full lawsuit can be found here.
