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Korean students seek 'digital undertakers' amid US visa social media screening
- ognarb 1y agoThe US is not only restricting the free speech of their own citizens but also from citizens of other countries...
- philipjoubert 1y ago[flagged]
- coolThingsFirst 1y ago[flagged]
- evrimoztamur 1y agoUS citizens themselves restrict the free speech of other US citizens, the governing bodies don't have to do much.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- AlecSchueler 1y agoI would think things like removing access to research which contained certain keywords could count, as well as things like ordering the removal of images of women and people of colour from military websites for example.
- owebmaster 1y ago[flagged]
- zeroCalories 1y agoHe just asked for examples? Can you give some?
- carefulfungi 1y ago1. University funding cancellations because of disfavored but 1A protected protests 2. Attacks on law firms with disfavored clients. 3. Federal law suits against media like NBC, ABC, and investigations of NPR and others. 4. Increased arrest rate for “obstruction” by ICE of people protesting immigration enforcement. 5. Blanket bans on “DEI” speech and retaliation against organizations that promote DEI. 6. An executive Order mandating that schools teach “patriotic” content or lose funding. 7. Banning trans people from the military directly infringing their 1A protected rights to express their identity. 8. Take overs of institutions like the Kennedy Center for the Arts, dismissal of the Librarian of Congress, content regulation of the Smithsonian, take-downs of federal data and images related to disfavored speech. 9. Revoking green cards because of 1A protected cards, denying visas, travel bans - all limiting what speech and associations are available to US citizens. 10. FTC merger rules forbidding coordinated boycotts. 11. Banning the Associated Press from the press room. General attacks on the media as “the enemy of America.”
- zeroCalories 1y ago1. This isn't suppressing free speech. This is classic new deal government. I thought liberals liked that? 2. No one is obligated to work with you, or give you clearances if you're suspected of being against state interests. 3. I thought we were all for government crackdowns on corrupt corporations? 4. Many of these people are obstructionist. 5. DEI is discriminatory. I thought liberals were anti-discrimination? 6. More new deal government. Nothing improper here. You just lost the vote. 7. The military is not obligated to allow anyone to serve. It's a job, like any other. Freedom of speech isn't freedom from consequences, pal. 8. Being selective of what you promote isn't suppression of speech. Is it suppression of speech when Confederate monuments are removed, or did you lose the vote? 9. Those are not citizens. 10. This is regulation to prevent anti-competitive behavior and harassment. 11. Not free speech. You're not obligated to be in a press room TBH, seems like you care that you lost, not about freedom. Why should I give you any freedom when your goal is to deprive me of mine?
- haxiomic 1y agoIdaho Teacher ordered to remove “Everybody is welcome” sign in classroom as US government threatens to cut funding for orgs supporting inclusive ideologies (lgbt, “woke”) https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/education/article301972094.html https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/education/article3...
- haxiomic 1y agoWords like “female” will flag scientific research grant applications for review and any found to be supporting diversity equity and inclusion face being cut https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/02/05/nsf-hunts-female-other-flagged-terms https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/02/05/n...
- joshuanapoli 1y agoUS universities are being punished for allowing free speech of individual members. The federal government is angling to get these groups to self-censor.
- locopati 1y agoPeaceful protest against Israel's destruction of Gaza will get you in trouble. Research all the anti-LGBTQ legislation at the federal and state levels. Remember, after all, the 1st amendment covers not only freedom of speech, but also assembly, the press, no establishment of religion, and the ability to petition the government. All of these things have been attacked and will continue to be attacked.
- mc32 1y agoIt’d been going on for a while: they had embedded people at Twitter, Facebook, etc. to act as liaisons to “protect truth” on subjects such as the origins of Covid, hunter Biden’s laptop, the senility of a certain commander in chief, the discussion on males participating in women’s sports, etc. the movement went so far as preventing speakers with opposing views to speak at universities. The idea of safe spaces itself is about censorship of ideas. All in the name of stopping “misinformation”.
- amanaplanacanal 1y agoThat was just private citizens exercising their own free speech rights, even if you disagreed. Now we have the federal government punishing people with speech and beliefs the president and his cronies don't like. It's a whole different ballgame.
- mandmandam 1y ago> That was just private citizens exercising their own free speech rights It was just a 'coincidence' that the US government was putting serious monopoly investigations on every big tech and social media company at the same time it offered these censorship 'suggestions', I'm sure.
- jan_Sate 1y agoI don't get why the US thought that it'd be a good idea to vet social media accounts for visa applications. If someone's having ill intent, one could easily create a burner account and fill in some random content for the sake of getting thru the visa application. Or they could even just purchase an account somewhere on the internet. Sad to see what US has become.
- AlecSchueler 1y agoI think they call it security theatre.
- zeroCalories 1y agoThe goal isn't to stop terrorism, or drug trafficking, etc. It's to curb opposition. There's very little difference between someone that's anti-american but keeps their opinions to themself, and someone that has no opinions. Why do you think China cracks down on speech? Is it for shits-and-giggles?
- cced 1y agoAre we now adding US to the list of countries cracking down on free speech?
- kmbfjr 1y agoYes. The moment you must show allegiance to a sitting president, your rights to free speech have been abridged. I am sure there are many more examples.
- mindslight 1y agoThis term "sitting" is doing a lot of work. Have you seen the guy's posture? I guess the term "teetering on the edge of a chair president" doesn't have the same ring to it.
- watwut 1y agoObviously yes.
- mrtksn 1y agoI was wondering if anyone hasn't started such a SaaS yet. Can have an effect of unauthentic MAGA + Israel accounts flooding the social media. However the issue is that it only works if your identity is linked to you, so for most people that would be very embarrassing. If Americans show flexibility to let you show your allegiance to USA and Israel through anonymous accounts they may be able to flood the social media with fake but real accounts. Bots but real people, if this was Chernobyl they would be called biorobots. That would be next-gen astroturfing, very hard to detect.
- logicchains 1y ago>However the issue is that it only works if your identity is linked to you, so for most people that would be very embarrassing It could just take the Chinese social media approach of being right on the borderline of satire, but within the realms of what some people really do believe, so a border agent couldn't dismiss it as satire but anyone who knew the poster could.
- aaron695 1y ago[dead]
- tuyguntn 1y agoSo many things are being done to protect a single country outside of the USA, even on a different continent, including losing its credibility about free speech and human rights.
- demarq 1y agoIsrael
- marcinzm 1y agoThis has little to do with a single country and more with the fact that if someone is willing to fight for anything other than the current administration then one day they might fight against the current administration directly. Same reason Stalin sent those who fought in the Warsaw Uprising against the Germans to Siberia. Today it's the Germans, tomorrow it may be the Soviets.
- tuyguntn 1y ago> "if someone is willing to fight for anything other than the current administration then one day they might fight against the current administration directly." So what? isn't the core idea in democracy "ruled by the people", Why can't you fight against the current administration with your opinion and opposition to their ideas?
- marcinzm 1y agoYes. I think you missed the point of my comment.
- danielktdoranie 1y agoI completely support the vigorous vetting of non-citizen seeking entry into the U.S.A. For any non-citizens entering the U.S.A. is a privilege and not a right. They are guests in the U.S.A. and need to respect their host country and its laws. Regarding the auditing social media, it's not just about their posts, but who they are friends with and who are friends with them. Point and case, your personal social media profile may be benign photos of kittens and snaps of what you had to eat that day, but your brother could be "friends" with terrorist or member of a criminal gang and that person could use your relationship with your bother to extort you after you enter the U.S.A. Biden's administration let at least 2700 Tren de Aragua gang members walk across the southern boarder. ICE and DHS have successfully arrested these TDA members, but there are more. These people rape, murder, traffic humans and drugs into the U.S.A. Their criminal network (and therefore profits) have been severely disrupted. It's common sense that they are going to seek new and creative ways to get back in business. As they already extort and exploit on a daily basis in Venezuela, why wouldn't they do the same to potential foreign students? This is just one example.
- amanaplanacanal 1y agoIt's not about terrorism. It's about keeping people with political views that don't align with Stephen Miller and Donald Trump out. This stuff is actively harming the US.
- padjo 1y agoThe drop in tourists from Western Europe certainly appears to be significant. Apparently the US is running a tourism deficit for the first time in a while.
- actionfromafar 1y agoA deficit?! Tariff the tourists!
- netsharc 1y agoThe criminals will still get in, and the law-abiding foreigners will stay out because "law" is whatever King Donald McFries says nowadays. So congrats, your ensuring the quality of your guests are as shitty as your regime.
- udev4096 1y ago> that she felt “stressed." Are these people so delusional that they think "social media" sites are even remotely anonymous? Whatever you do, it's up for sale. No wonder meta has billions of active users, most of them with no brain cells. It's extremely concerning that majority of the younger generation has almost no sense of achieving privacy on the internet
- udev4096 1y ago> help me permanently delete data Surprise surprise. There is no such thing. About time people start understanding the grave consequences of their reckless actions
- neom 1y agoIt's not just students btw... we're dealing it this too. My wife is a Korean university professor teaching at an American university, and her visa needs to be renewed by next month. I'm Canadian and she has residency in Canada but the Korean embassy in Canada advised her to travel back to Korea to renew it. She got back to Korea end of May to find that the US embassy in Korea had paused appointments. Monday last week she was able to make an appointment for it, and indeed she was advised her social media will be screened.
- pkkkzip 1y ago[flagged]
- ulfw 1y ago[flagged]
- goranmoomin 1y agoThis is a blatantly false comment. For the sake of other viewers on HN that is not familiar with Korean politics, this is totally fake (and is probably pushing the views of the Korean alt-right). United States sharply criticized Yoon after his unconstitutional martial law declaration, publishing pretty strong remarks that it was illegimate[0]. They have consistently spoke (in diplomatic language) that they do not support Yoon until he was impeached. Impeaching Yoon was supported by 75% of the country [1] and anti-Yoon protests were not seen as anti-US nor pro-China at all. The newly elected president, Lee Jae Myung, is not seen as anti-US nor pro-China in Korea (he does have a less anti-China stance than his predecessor), and any claims of election fraud claim is baseless[2] and without evidence. The few paragraphs on telegram groups are groups that are run by the alt-right that send reports of anti-Yoon social influencers to the CIA, arguing that they were anti-US and communists[3] (yes, the red fear and the cold war is still a thing in South Korea, thanks to the North Korean regime, no, we do not recognize North Korea as a sovereign state) Yes people are affected due to the new visa process, PhD students big among the affected, but no, big businesses are not being blocked sending their workers to the US. Samsung is not struggling getting visas. This is a totally baseless fake news. Please don’t let this information spread. Thanks. [0]: https://www.reuters.com/world/us-says-south-koreas-yoon-badly-misjudged-martial-law-declaration-2024-12-04/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us-says-south-koreas-yoon-badl... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Yoon_Suk_Yeol#Opinion_polling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Yoon_Suk_Yeol#O... [2]: https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.36RG6PF https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.36RG6PF [3]: https://koreaherald.com/article/10019148 https://koreaherald.com/article/10019148 ———— Not trying to shoot the messenger, but the user has a history of getting flagged with far-right racial comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44405917 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44405917, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44203934 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44203934, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44203849 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44203849 They also got flagged previously by arguing the sentiment of the Korean alt-right: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43431867 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43431867 And also say that they submit AI-generated comments as well: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=pkkkzip https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=pkkkzip I would not trust this person’s comments.
- efitz 1y ago[flagged]
- airza 1y agoIt seems fairly obvious that few South Korean students harbor deep anti American sentiment, but many are not clear what shitposts would block entrance to the US.
- SkyeCA 1y agoThe real world isn't this black and white. It is possible to have issues with some American actions or policies without disliking the country or its people.
- pkkkzip 1y ago[flagged]
- actionfromafar 1y ago[flagged]
- pythonbase 1y agoStudents applying from Pakistan are also asked to make their socials publicly accessible for vetting. https://www.dawn.com/news/1920307/us-consulates-in-pakistan-ask-f-m-and-j-visa-applicants-to-make-social-media-accounts-public-for-vetting https://www.dawn.com/news/1920307/us-consulates-in-pakistan-...
- gorjusborg 1y agoI am taking a second to audibly thank the people who were arguing that privacy still mattered in the age of the internet. People often don't realize how much they take for granted (like perfect forward freedom of speech) until it is gone.
- TrackerFF 1y agoMakes me wonder, do the big social media companies store deleted data? Probably. And if they do, will that be available to the boarder agents? Image being denied entry, because you were 16 and made some edgy posts / memes about Trump 10 years ago. Long deleted, to the point you can't even remember them - but now unearthed by CBP agents, and that's that.
- LightBug1 1y agoFor the record. FUCK TRUMP UP THE ASS WITH A GROUNDHOG (sorry, Groundhog)
- nisegami 1y agoAs a student I had to provide my social media passwords to CBP during a secondary screening. This was ~7 years ago. Stuff like this has been a thing for a while.
- LightBug1 1y agoLOL ... There is no way in hell I'm ever being let back into the US ... c'est la vie. Big world out there to explore.