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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington

US announces new restrictions to curb global spyware industry

A hand types on a keyboard
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said the misuse of commercial spyware has been linked to ‘arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in the most egregious of cases’. Photograph: Andrew Brookes/Getty Images/Image Source

The US said it will impose global visa restrictions on individuals who have been involved in the misuse of commercial spyware, in a move that could affect major US allies including Israel, India, Jordan and Hungary.

The new policy, unveiled on Monday, underscores how the Biden administration continues to see the proliferation of weapons-grade commercial spyware – which has been used by governments around the world against hundreds of political dissidents, human rights advocates, journalists and lawyers – as a major threat to US national security and counterintelligence capabilities.

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