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Harvard Student Says He Was Barred From U.S. Over Friends’ Social Media Posts
- edejong 7y agoMaybe now people will stop using social media. Ah, wait, no. Everything in the name of convenience.
- SenHeng 7y agoImmigration will likely think you're lying if you say you don't use any form of social media.
- Mirioron 7y agoI find this to be equally as frustrating. If I don't use social media then I don't use social media.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoMaybe, but if you claim just WeChat, they will probably give up since they don’t Chinese.
- SenHeng 7y agoYou think they have someone that reads Arabic on site? They probably use some kind of translation service.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoIn real time? Maybe. But their tools are probably all geared towards western services like Facebook.
- benj111 7y agoReally? "the US is a goat" Could reasonably be an insult or a compliment, an automated tool wouldn't be able to say which. Or by translation service, do you mean a person.
- mcv 7y agoYou can create new social media accounts that only follow your mom, dad and the president. Switch back to the real accounts once you're safe.
- jeena 7y agoWhat if your mom is a outspoken communist?
- throwaway66666 7y agoThen sadly they probably know who you are already.
- mcv 7y agoThen you need to turn her in to the authorities for disloyalty, of course.
- Sharlin 7y agoI'll rather not visit the US, thank you very much.
- megaremote 7y agoShame, it is a wonderful place with wonderful people in it. So is Canada, who gave me grief last time I went there. Still worth it.
- gambiting 7y agoNothing in there can be worth being treated like a criminal, possibly detained for hours, and then being told by someone on a power trip that they don't like your social media so you're going to be sent back and potentially banned forever. Yes I'd love to visit American national parks, but I think I'll manage, there's pleny of beautiful nature in other places too.
- tjoff 7y agoAs much as I despise facebook et al surely this problem lies completely with the over-reach of customs. If anything the solution is to boycott the US. This is ludicrous.
- edejong 7y agoWith great power lies great responsibility. People give great power by using centralized social media from a single nation without fully understanding the implications of it.
- viraptor 7y ago> centralized social media from a single nation Does this matter? Would it make any difference if the same message was spotted on a self-hosted out-of-us mastodon instance?
- edejong 7y agoYes, it certainly does, for a variety of reasons. First of all, it is much easier and cost-effective to gain full knowledge of the graph data in a centralized system. Instead, by working on a distributed system, we could change the protocol to increase the effort needed to mine data. Second of all, we gain the opportunity to know who or what has requested our data. We can decide to block these requests if they are used against us. Lastly, we can distribute the available power of information over multiple nations. When policies change, data (and information) can flow to places where these policies have no effect.
- viraptor 7y ago> much easier and cost-effective to gain full knowledge of the graph data in a centralized system At least right now, that's not true. It's harder to automatically scrape Facebook than a random decentralised system - mainly because decentralised systems need to have the data sharing built in to work. Sharing the data in a structured way is the central idea behind them. > We can decide to block these requests if they are used against us. You're not going to be able to block this access from gov only. If known networks become blocked, new gateways can be obtained for less money than is worth mentioning. > When policies change, data (and information) can flow to places where these policies have no effect. Again, if you're interested in anything resembling a social network, you'll need to share your data with a lot of people. Unless you want to keep it all private - you can do the same thing on FB currently, and border control will not have access to it.
- olivierlacan 7y agoHow is this the conclusion you're reaching first? Does the unbelievable invasion of privacy and infringement on freedom of speech not raise your ire first and foremost? Can you imagine being denied the right to travel or to temporarily relocate for school or work in a theoretically democratic country only to be denied entry because you or your friends expressed a personal, private, inconsequential and most likely fleeting opinion in the past?
- paggle 7y agoTheoretically democratic? Protections against democracy are one of the only reasons that the US still allows unskilled immigrants at all. The majority of the US population would overwhelmingly support the visa denial of a brown-skinned Muslim-sounding guy whose Facebook friends had posted suspect content.
- edejong 7y agoYour freedom is primarily based on the amount of power you decide to give to others. Due to social media, a tremendous asymmetry of power has been created in the hands of a few. This power is made visible in areas that are slightly outside of normal jurisdiction, such as at US border control. Our normal tendency is to want to regulate, but this can only be done to a limited extend. Too much regulation can stifle innovation or place too much power in the hands of the regulators. I'm not arguing against regulation. I am arguing that we should understand that our social media use (among others) comes at a very high cost to our freedoms. Proportional use, (proportional to our ability to regulate or our willingness to provide asymmetric information power) is warranted.
- nraynaud 7y agoThey search your private discussions. A CBP agent read my skype discussions then called my girlfriend at work to ask where she sees our relationship going. Those people have absolutely no ethics, moral limit nor legal limits, they just hate foreigners and want them out.
- maze-le 7y agoDid you have to give you password or your device? I am just wondering how they got access to your skype account.
- surge 7y agoAlready posted and discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20809435 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20809435
- Ididntdothis 7y agoDo other countries do stuff like that too? In German media I often read about things like security researchers not allowed to go a conference in the US or people turned around for their twitter posts. Does this really happen often and do other countries for example in Europe do this too?
- hos234 7y agoYes. Thanks to 9/11 and characters like Mohamed Atta who look good on paper but are crazy. No easy way to spot them. Better to be safe than sorry etc etc.
- maze-le 7y agoIn Europe, definitly not while applying for a visum (they don't want your online-handles and passwords for example). You'll probably get "background-checked" from the interior intelligence agencies (e.g. Verfassungsschutz) while completing the formal immigration process, but that is a completely different story than a mere visum.
- jacobush 7y agoI imagine there would have to be some kind of GDPR exception for that to happen in Europe.
- majewsky 7y agoGDPR can be overridden by any law that deems data access necessary for government officers to do their job. When those laws are overturned by the courts, it's not on the basis of GDPR or similar laws, it's usually because they violate the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which has a constitution-like status due to the Treaty of Lisbon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_of_Fundamental_Rights_of_the_European_Union https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_of_Fundamental_Rights_...
- vmlinuz 7y agoChina is actively checking people's phones at airports and land/sea entrance points for evidence that the person attended or supports the protests in Hong Kong. People have certainly been denied entry and held for a few hours, and may have been taken into longer-term detention. The fact that the US has been doing similar for a long time has been widely used as justification for China's actions...
- laluser 7y agoGetting access to your social media handles is now part of the application process for many different kinds of visas. To me, it's just another way for CBP agents to make arbitrary decisions. There's not even much accountability as-is. They have the ultimate say if they want to let you in or not. Now, it's even crazier since simply liking a page 5 years ago could turn into a disaster if that page evolves into something 'anti-american'. God-forbid you get hacked and someone sabotages your online persona'.
- Moru 7y agoThe usual speach goes like "If you don't have anything to hide...". But do you know if your friend on facebook has anything to hide that will connect you by association? The privacy debate got stuck on the "If YOU don't have..." but that is not the whole problem.
- swarnie_ 7y agoI personally don't use Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. If i applied and left all these fields blank i do wonder if they would believe me or maybe think i was withholding information and reject me on that ground....
- raxxorrax 7y agoMe too. I think the situation we are seeing now was very predictable and started with government ambitions to gain access to internet communication. But neither political side had any ambition to strike that down. Certainly worth remembering.
- koonsolo 7y agoI would have never predicted this from a western country to act like this. But I guess the Anglo-Saxon countries were always leaning on the controlling side. At least EU still has some sort of values. I won't be traveling to the US soon, unless I really need to.
- 7y ago
- curiousDog 7y agoThe US’s strength lies in the scores of bright immigrants who come to the universities here to study and later join the work force. Keep treating them like shit and competition will soon step into that role.
- Bud 7y agoOh, that ship has sailed. It has already happened. We don't realize it yet because we haven't lost any wars because of it yet, but it has happened.
- megaremote 7y ago> The US’s strength lies in the scores of bright immigrants who come to the universities here to study and later join the work force. No it doesn't, what a ridiculous statement. Its strength lies in many factors, immigration of bright students is a tiny part of that.
- acangiano 7y ago> Keep treating them like shit and competition will soon step into that role. Canada says hi.
- jonathankoren 7y agoLast week I was scanning through the Bay Area FM stations and came across an ad on the Bollywood station. It was a immigration consultant pointing out that that due restrictions to the H-4 visa, it was advisable to immigrate to Canada, and this company could help. If I wasn’t an American and looking to immigrate, I’d go to Canada. It’s just as good and nicer.
- cylinder 7y agoThis is literally a growth industry in Canada right now. Toronto is building a big tech sector just taking up people who can't get into the US. The government and establishment are all on board with population growth as a source of economic strength right now.
- nraynaud 7y agoI’ve heard that a few days ago (probably same day as this story) CBP detained a bunch (heard about 20-30 in the secondary room) of Chinese students at LAX for a few tens of hours and trawled all their electronics and pressured them in various ways. I know for sure that 7 of them got their visa revoked that day (I don’t have information about other universities). They apparently got a curious deal: either they paid for their return ticket or they got a five year ban on top. According to the people dealing with foreign student CBP has never done that before.
- wbl 7y agoChina has inserted agents who monitor students political views abroad and if they start liking democracy too much start putting pressure on.
- nraynaud 7y agoWhat is the link with immigration? The CIA murders people abroad, and uses the peace corps for spying and influence, does that means that all the countries should randomly send Americans home at the border?
- jonathankoren 7y agoThe Peace Corps is most emphatically NOT a spying or any other clandestine operation. There are legal restrictions that between the Peace Corps and both civilian and military intelligence agencies. Since it’s founding in the 1960s, this has been a founding principle that ensures the safety of the Peace Corps volunteers.
- nraynaud 7y agoSome members have been individually asked by the local CIA station to enter a military base and try to report on the names and grades of people there. Not as an order from the peace corps.
- 7y ago
- i_feel_great 7y agoJust stop openly criticizing everyone and everything. Be super-compliant and everything will be sweet.
- seanmcdirmid 7y ago...and only make friends with others like that? We are going towards 1984 I guess.
- i_feel_great 7y agoYup, otherwise the all seeing-eye will be upon you all. Wait a minute, it already is. And we technologists made it happen
- arikr 7y agoWhat can someone concretely do to help prevent things like this happening to other people in the U.S.?
- damnyou 7y agoVote for the party that doesn't demonize immigrants, and get all your friends and family to vote. The US is still a democracy no matter how broken the Senate is, and the responsibility for state actions ultimately falls on the citizenry.
- raxxorrax 7y agoThat other party is really happy with demonizing what people write online and is far more active in banning dissent. Not that the alternative isn't worse, but the inability to name bad policy decisions almost makes that difference trivial.
- calimac 7y agoSince were on the topic, what do you think about the Chinese social Credit score?
- rdtsc 7y ago> Mr. McCarthy noted that Mr. Ajjawi could reapply for a visa. Usually after a denial, it becomes much harder to get an acceptance. You have to put down answers to questions like "have you ever had your visa denied and why?". The next agent now has a bright red flag to look at. "Oh anti-American social media posts? Interesting. Hmm, ... well you can pay the fee and try again next time".
- ALittleLight 7y agoWithout seeing the comments it's difficult to know if this is a reasonable call or not. I can certainly imagine posts from Facebook friends that I think would be disqualifying for a visa, but I can also imagine government employees overreacting. One imaginary scenario that occurs to me is the one where he is admitted, commits a terrorist act, and then everyone looks at his friends on Facebook who are posting the kind of content that would make you suspect terrorism, and we'd wonder - why is a person so obviously terrorist adjacent admitted to the country? On the other hand, my immediate thought on reading this is that I wouldn't let my phone, and definitely not my accounts, get searched on visiting a foreign country. I'd also support people encrypting their phones and turning them off prior to government checkpoints. I just don't know how to square my intuitions there with my doubts about this case. Finally, it strikes me as a bit elitist of the NYT to add "Harvard Student" to the title. If this choice is wrong, it's wrong regardless of which school he's been admitted to. If we can't judge people based on their friends, then we should apply that standard to the Harvard-bound and non Harvard-bound alike.
- Moru 7y agoTurn off your encrypted phone before border control works out like this: Detained the maximum time waiting for you to give up. If you don't give up, deported. Just don't bring your normal phone on trips. Get a burner phone with just Mum/Dad contacts and leave the real one home.
- martin8412 7y agoOr you know - Just not go to places that demand to look through your phone.
- tastroder 7y agoYou go from "difficult to know if this is a reasonable call or not" to an imaginary scenario where you dream up the perfect scenario for some CBP agent to make it reasonable according to a pretty clear cut politicial narrative, not a factual one. Terrorists usually do not engage with the NYT to make headlines after being rejected entry to a country. These are people, please treat them like that. This mentality always reminds me of the mathematician that was delayed for working on their equations [0]. Stuff like this is grounded in weird and unrealistic terror fears and affects people. > I wouldn't let my phone, and definitely not my accounts, get searched on visiting a foreign country. So, you either don't travel or look caucasian enough for that to not be an issue for you personally so far? That's great but it's not like this is even a US-only thing, this is a quite common occurrence these days. > Finally, it strikes me as a bit elitist of the NYT to add "Harvard Student" to the title. With current administration actively villainizing citizens of other countries, reporting on the academic background of those affected seems perfectly reasonable. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/07/professor-flight-delay-terrorism-equation-american-airlines https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/07/professor-fl...
- satori99 7y agoAs someone who has never had a social media account, I have wondered if US customs would believe me if I traveled there and they asked me about it?
- nabla9 7y agoOr if that's grounds for denial.
- pvtmert 7y agoyou can send your hackernews account maybe?
- satori99 7y agoSure, I can tell them about my github account too, and hopefully I haven't starred anyone who writes subversive code :P
- hackandtrip 7y agoAt least the last time I did the ESTA VISA for the US, they asked (optionally) for multiple social network, github too!
- 3JPLW 7y agoYeah, I'm sure that will go over well. "No, I don't have a Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram account, but I do have an account on this site called Hacker News." "Oh, so are you a hacker?" Good luck.
- pmiller2 7y agoIn all honesty, I’m not sure.
- i_feel_great 7y agoDepends on the colour of your skin, your class, your job, your sexuality, how you part your hair, your tattoos etc.
- dzhiurgis 7y agoMost ironic part - content is hosted and curated by US company...
- hans_castorp 7y agoSo apparently freedom of speech in the U.S. means "freedom to say whatever the U.S. thinks is right".
- dragonwriter 7y agoWhile I suppose this may be litigated, the issue isn't with what freedom of speech includes, but that that freedom of speech just isn't applied to immigration process.
- neighbour 7y agoNot a U.S. citizen but why would the constitution apply to non-American citizens?
- mixmastamyk 7y agoThe constitution in general limits the government not individuals.
- pjc50 7y agoThe corresponding provision in European human rights law, article 10, applies to all humans.
- benj111 7y agoWhy not? A constitution is the statement of intent for how you want your country to be (minimums anyway). If you can't even apply those minimums to foreigners what does that say about your country? Your respect for your own rule of law? Would you question if murder laws applied to non citizens?
- sieabahlpark 7y agoYou don't exactly have freedom of speech until you're a citizen... Since he wasn't a citizen he is not under that law.
- hans_castorp 7y agoAh, so not all men are created equal - only U.S.A. citizens. Yes, that goes in line with the way the U.S.A. treats the rest of the world.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- Mikeb85 7y agoHonestly, he should know better. Not going to lie, I've got friends that post questionable stuff (drunken antics, random rants) and when I was in school, looking for internships and whatnot I shut down those social media accounts and scrubbed my online life. Based on the fact he's Palestinian, I'm going to guess there were posts that were anti-US. Guilt by association is a thing and since he's not a citizen, the US doesn't have to let him in. Maybe it's a tad unfair, but he chose to continue to follow those friends online, he could have disengaged...
- jeena 7y agoBefore throwing the first stone I would look through my own accounts. The Facebook algorithm doesn't even show you what your friends are posting for years, only those you engage with.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- Uhrheber 7y agoObviously, the US of A don't want any visitors anymore. Duly noted.
- Noos 7y agoNot only do some of us don't want visitors, we'd love to completely withdraw all support for the EU and our military bases there, too :) The amount of complaining the EU does when it's been free riding on The USA's foreign aid and military power for decades its a wee bit annoying.
- gambiting 7y agoWait....are you actually serious? Let me get this abundantly clear. US has military bases in the EU(and elsewhere) for their own benefit. They are not protecting us, they are not here for any sort of contribution to military power - they are here to project American might across the globe. In case of actual global-scale conflict with say Russia, I have less than zero faith that US army would do anything to defend us, unless it aligned perfectly with their own goals. I've heard this argument multiple times actually - that somehow EU states should be grateful for "protection" that US is providing the the rest of the world. No, it's the other way around - US should be grateful that those countries let US keep a solid foothold in those parts of the world, but let's not kid ourselves - protecting those countries is probably not even in top 3 of American priorities should an actual war break out.
- floatingatoll 7y agoStep one, set all your social media to private. Step two, set your passwords to something horrendously complex and leave them at home when you travel. Step three, create a list of your account names on each service and carry it in your wallet. Step four, delete all social media apps, cookies, and sessions from all of your digital devices prior to traveling to the United States. Step five, set up a social network email address used solely for social networks, and change your email address on all social networks to this new address. Apply the same password and logout rules as above. Step six, when US border entry demands your account names, use the list in your wallet to provide them a complete list, including the email address linked to those social networks. When they demand the passwords, indicate that you use 64-character random passwords, and that they’re written on a piece of paper at home. You may or may not be denied entry, and you may or may not be detained, but those are the minimum steps you must take if you wish to defend your accounts from access. By using passwords you cannot memorize, you can truthfully and under oath declare that you do not know those passwords. If you have completed all of the above steps, you can only then proceed to delete your social network accounts. This will change nothing: you must still declare all of these accounts for many years, and adhere strictly to these rules until the reporting deadline expires. You will additionally then need to inform US agents that you deleted your accounts as they were being used by the US to violate your privacy. Do any less than this and you will find your data used by the United States government without your consent, against you and against others. You may still find everything you posted prior to deletion used against you. Do not lie. Either tell the truth or decline to answer. Best of luck. EDIT: For bonus points, secure the passwords in a safe and memorize the combination. When asked for the passwords, tell them where they’re stored and what the combination to the safe is. You will openly have complied and given them everything they need to access your accounts, and volunteering the safe combination indicates that you have nothing to hide from any investigation. They may still capriciously deny you entry, but they will have a very difficult time convincing anyone that you were obstructive, since you volunteered your safe combination of your own free will, and they will have a very difficult time securing a warrant for that safe without cause.
- pvg 7y agoThat's a lot of steps for something that might not help you at all. You can be asked to list your social media accounts during the visa application process, not at the point of entry. Step six, especially, where it becomes quite obvious you are trying to 'hack' the process is probably worse than not doing anything. The bizarre thing about this story is that the student was stopped this late - getting a US student visa, especially for someone from that part of the world involves a fair bit of scrutiny.
- keerthiko 7y ago> Michael S. McCarthy, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection, said he could not comment on the specifics of Mr. Ajjawi’s case because of privacy rules. The irony of this statement is making my head spin
- caf 7y agoThis is just the standard go-to excuse now for public officials refusing to comment on a controversial or embarrassing decision. They use it even if the subject whose privacy rights they are supposedly and suddenly so interested in protecting explicitly waives it. Every time you see that comment, just read it as "I am not prepared to offer a defence of our actions".
- paxys 7y agoVery similar to bullshit we hear at companies as well. "We can't talk about why we fired XYZ because we value his privacy." Meanwhile XYZ is himself going around telling everyone who will listen about how he was screwed over.
- caf 7y agoOh, you're absolutely right, I shouldn't have limited that to officialdom - it's definitely used at least as much if not more so by corporate PR. Exactly the same reading applies.
- luka-birsa 7y agoI'm guessing people will soon start figuring out that privacy is important and that perhaps posting personal shit online is not smart. Today it's some kid who had some friends say something barred from entry in the US, tomorrow it's going to be you for some weird meme image you've posted online flagged by some algorithm. Say it won't be so, but I can't see how that wont happen especially with the always shifting moral compass and laws around what's acceptable and not.
- benj111 7y agoPersonally I would say being barred for what someone else said is worse than being barred for something that I myself did/said.
- mrunkel 7y agoFor me what is particularly galling is that the state department had already vetted and approved this person. Remember, part of the visa application includes your social media profiles, so he's already been vetted. Then some random CBP agent reads through Facebook posts of his friends and denies him entry. Some of the other comments here bewilder me. The US used to stand for fairness, equality, and due process. We've allowed the worst of ourselves (fear of the other) to destroy the best of ourselves (openness, fairness, justice).
- devoply 7y ago> random CBP agent High School grad with relatively low intelligence and likely conservative 'murica values. > Some of the other comments here bewilder me. The US used to stand for fairness, equality, and due process. We've allowed the worst of ourselves (fear of the other) to destroy the best of ourselves (openness, fairness, justice). Crypto-racism is in vogue in America these days. Where any deference to the law or the rules is used as cover for hatred of various minorities.
- gumby 7y agoThis was Boston, where nothing is "crypto" (hidden) about the racism. It's a badge of honor. Source: attended high school in city of Boston; university in city of Cambridge. Got outa dodge immediately after that but my friends who still live there tell me it's as bad, or worse, than it was in the 80s.
- hos234 7y agoWhere is the CBP/state dept side to this story?
- masonic 7y agoYet the media tend to blame government when such social media activity goes unnoticed until a tragedy happens, like Tashfeen Malik. She, a Pakistani in the USA on a valid visa, had pledged allegiance to ISIS on social media before the San Bernardino massacre. Subsequent policies to inspect social media are the result.
- 7y ago
- rendall 7y agoIf you're outraged, great! I ask that you remember that new powers advocated by the party you trust - such as warrantless border searches - can also be used by the party you do not trust. Please, please think carefully when the party you like arrogates powers to the government, and punish them with your vote and advocacy, even though you like them. Examples! -- The border patrol powers cited in the article actually extend 100 miles from the US border. Do you live within 100 miles of the US border, or do you ever visit places that are? If so, then you may be stopped without probable cause by border patrol. https://www.aclu.org/other/constitution-100-mile-border-zone https://www.aclu.org/other/constitution-100-mile-border-zone -- The President of the United States can put even US citizens on a secret assassination list and have them executed. This was a power not authorized by Congress. Even the legal basis for this - the very law that pasted a veneer of legality on this - is secret. The media kept focusing on "drone attacks", but the method of assassination was not the controversial part of all of that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposition_Matrix https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposition_Matrix -- Secret trials, in which the defendant is not even allowed to know they are under trial, and witnesses have gag orders not to reveal this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Court https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Foreign_Intellig... -- Mass, warrantless surveillance. -- The US requires US citizens living abroad to pay taxes to the US government. By itself, this is arguably a patriotic duty of every citizen, even though the US and the dictatorship of Eritrea are the only countries that require this. Unlike Eritrea, however, the US can enforce this on foreign banks, which are required to report your personal economic activity to the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Account_Tax_Compliance_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Account_Tax_Compliance... There is more. A lot more. It makes me nervous when people focus on Trump as a particularly evil anomaly that must be removed at all costs, and then everything can go back to normal. "Normal" is terrifying to me. The virtue of Trump is that people are paying attention, at least: it's difficult for the government to arrogate more powers when people are paying attention. I hope that the outrage against Trump continues when the next Democrat gets in, and all of this creeping authoritarianism will get rolled back. But, I also suspect that's a delusional fantasy.
- igammarays 7y agoHappened to a friend of mine way back in 2005, a Canadian citizen of Indian descent. He had a valid TN visa and was working full time in the US, regularly crossing the border between Canada and the US to visit family. One day he was simply barred by a CBP agent, and furthermore, permanently banned from entering the US, so he can’t even take a Canadian flight that goes over US airspace. He had a house, car, and job in the US for years. Reason given? Because he had once flown to Syria for an Arabic language education. Keep in mind this was before any war was going on in Syria.
- 2_listerine_pls 7y agoThat's insane. US Customs does treat foreigners like cattle, it's a military-like process with no oversight and where bad treatment is not punished.
- gumby 7y agoThey're cutting off the limb that they're sitting on if they're turning away smart kids. Idiots.
- mytailorisrich 7y agoThere are two issues here: The visa application process should (does?) include this sort of vetting. Why go through the whole visa application process just to have that happen when entering the country? On the other hand, third parties' social media comments are useful and relevant. If you have friends and/or are part of groups which, for example, discuss djihad then that raises a real red flag about you even if they don't find any such comments from you. This is relevant information to take into account during the vetting process.
- RickJWagner 7y agoWow, this is tough one for me. On one hand, I can totally understand denying access to someone who has many online associates who post things about mass murder, bomb-making, etc. etc. On the other hand, I have online 'friends' I haven't seen since childhood, a few of which sometimes post absolutely idiotic things. Maybe somewhat racist memes, etc. I don't feel I need to scold them, I just ignore them as much as possible and hope to see more posts about common interests, like our shared upbringing. I'd hate to judged on those posts (that aren't mine!)