7 ms·

I 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 cre

I 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 ago
I think they call it security theatre.
zeroCalories 1y ago
The 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 ago
  Are we now adding US to the list of countries cracking down on free speech?
  - kmbfjr 1y ago
    Yes. 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 ago
      This 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 ago
    Obviously yes.
  - leipie 1y ago
    For me it has already been on there for quite a while now. Is has just been getting quite a bit worse, since Trump 2
- 15155 1y ago
  > anti-american but keeps their opinions to themself, and someone that has no opinions Why do we need to be admitting anti-American individuals to this country for any reason whatsoever? News flash: visas are a privilege, not a right.
  - __s 1y ago
    Anti American is a fluid term Is it anti American to oppose annexing Canada? Careful what you reply, may affect your visa application
    - 15155 1y ago
      It truly does not matter how this opinion can shift with the political climate: foreigners aren't citizens, no matter how much folks would like this to be the case.
      - netsharc 1y ago
        > We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom -- freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It's fragile; it needs protection. Reagan is a hypocritical cunt of course, but how far we've fallen that now you might as well put a chain around Lady Liberty's neck, pull it down like the statues of Saddam Hussein or Assad (or I guess hanging is more appropriate, since the spiritual successors of the Confederancy is now in power), and replace it with a statue of redneck lady giving foreigners the middle finger, with "Fuck off!" written on the base.
        15155 1y ago
        Ah yes, because we don't automatically tolerate foreign political activists (or intelligence operatives, who cares, right?), freedom is all but lost, right?
        mandmandam 1y ago
DragonStrength 1y ago
No one is pretending this is about terrorism now. They're explicit this is about curbing political activism by foreign students. Some outside the US miss that because few countries would have given foreign students this much room for activism in the first place.
- tuyguntn 1y ago
  Do you think US embassy will reject political activism if it was against China?
  - Tika2234 1y ago
    [dead]
  - efitz 1y ago
    Do you think you would be granted a visa by China if your social media was full of anti-China rhetoric?
    - hearsathought 1y ago
      > Do you think you would be granted a visa by China if your social media was full of anti-China rhetoric? I bet you'd be granted a visa by china if your social media was full of anti-israel rhetoric though...
    - tuyguntn 1y ago
      it's strange that you are comparing democracy with a communism. Wasn't the whole premise of democracy to express yourself freely and the core idea was "rule by the people"? If country claims that they are democracy, then they should give people to add their opinion to rule the country, China is following its own core idea, ruled by a single party.
  - dfxm12 1y ago
    People have been detained/face deportation for activism against other foreign countries, so why not? The point is: if the admin wants you gone, or doesn't want to let you in, they'll use anything as pretense.
noobermin 1y ago
Along with the push for ending birth right citizenship and detaining citizens the goal is a white ethnostate. I doubt Trump is that cognizant of that but Stephen Miller definitely is pushing for that.
- ivape 1y ago
  Yeah, I mean, what was that whole we’re going to bring white South African immigrants here and kick brown ones out? MAGA is a white supremacy movement, but calling this out in America is like trying to tell your best friend her husband is cheating on her. It’s going to be an ugly reveal and difficult conversation, but the facts are the facts.
- 15155 1y ago
  > Along with the push for ending birth right citizenship Which other countries in the world allow pregnant vacationers to birth citizens?
  - ivape 1y ago
    It appears most of the western hemisphere (Canada, USA, Mexico, most of South America).
    - apwell23 1y ago
      > western hemisphere oh yea to outnumber the native population they were taking over during colonial times. ironically it came back to bite them now that they are on the receiving end of replacement.
      - deleted 1y ago
        [deleted]
  - noobermin 1y ago
    It's enshrined in the constitution. You're welcome to try to ammend the constitution to make it a white only nation. Good luck with that. I guess upping the bribes to certain scotus justices also works.
apwell23 1y ago
Doing that would be visa fraud. Why create any rule if ppl can commit fraud anyways? Why ask for educational qualifications for h1b because ppl can create fake certificates( many do) ?
- marcinzm 1y ago
  Because then anyone can be deported at any time without any more process needed since it's visa fraud. Maybe even get your citizenship revoked one day given how things are going.
- Chris2048 1y ago
  Would it? What makes aSM account "official"? If I make a burner account, it's still my account.
  - apwell23 1y ago
    you have reveal all social media accounts not one of your choosing. ppl commenting here without even checking the basics :(
    - AlecSchueler 1y ago
      And if you deactivate the others?
      - Chris2048 1y ago
        It says "from the last five years"
        AlecSchueler 1y ago
        So what happens if you deactivated an account within the past five years, you can't travel to the US?
    - Chris2048 1y ago
      Entry can be denied if you claim to have no social media accounts, so you can in fact only give one of your choosing to gain entry. Whether not disclosing any others is visa fraud is a matter of legal consideration iff other accounts are discovered before the collapse of the current administration.
Hilift 1y ago
> why the US thought that it'd be a good idea to vet social media accounts for visa applications. The catalyst was the campus takeovers by people wearing masks and causing disruption for months. That was a gift for the Republicans, delivered on a silver platter. They made that an issue every day in Congress from October 7 2023 until November 5 2024. It coincided with the resignation of several university presidents. Columbia University President Minouche Shafik Cornell Martha Pollack Liz Magill, University of Pennsylvania Claudine Gay Harvard Additionally, the US has a statutory requirement for biometric exit scans when a visitor leaves. It was completely ignored. There were entry scans, but no exit scan. The simple fact is they don't want anyone not like them coming to the US, and unauthorized entry has diminished significantly. It's also the reason for rejecting birthright citizenship, and deporting unauthorized persons to third country staging areas. The UK is in the same boat. The UK is currently spending ~£3 billion per year on accommodations, and costs are expected to triple. It's created profiteering companies and waves of human trafficking across Europe. France only recently agreed to stop them when they line up a row of 20 zodiacs to assault Dover. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation https://www.newsweek.com/full-list-college-presidents-who-have-resigned-amid-campus-protests-1939822 https://www.newsweek.com/full-list-college-presidents-who-ha... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/07/uk-asylum-seeker-accommodation-costs-over-decade-triple-to-15bn-nao https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/07/uk-asylum-seek... https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2720n2kkjo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2720n2kkjo
- mixmastamyk 1y ago
  Who are the they/them in your last two paragraphs?
dataflow 1y ago
> 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. The timestamps will immediately give it away if you try to pull that though. Not to mention that they could also (if they want) just harvest data on what accounts already exist at what point in time, to detect actions like this. Lots of data brokers have such data already. And they could just do some cursory searches for other accounts you might have too, if you don't deactivate them...
hearsathought 1y ago
> I don't get why the US thought that it'd be a good idea to vet social media accounts for visa applications. Since almost all major social media companies are american, and all major social media/tech companies are state/defense companies, the US already "vets" social media accounts of foreigners and most likely americans as well. This has nothing to do with "vetting" social media accounts. It's about scaring the world so that the world stops criticizing primarily israel. If we really want to "vet" foreigners, we'd be doing it secretly so that bad actors feel free to expose themselves on social media. This does the exact opposite. It's about controlling the narrative and preventing criticism of israel.
- absurdo 1y ago
  > It's about scaring the world so that the world stops criticizing primarily israel. You should back up this assertion with facts and evidence otherwise nobody will take it at face value and it will be categorized as drivel.
  - hearsathought 1y ago
    Facts and evidence? I explained to you my reasoning. If you disagree with it fine. Let me ask you, why do you think this is happening all of a sudden? To "vet" foreigners? Yeah right. As I said, if we wanted weed out undesirable foreigners, we would want them to post freely on social media with any fear of repercussion. We wouldn't warn them about potentially having their social media scrutinized.
  - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
    It’s a green account whose entire comment history is railing on a single topic without ever citing sources. Flag and move on.
    - hearsathought 1y ago
      You keep breaking hn guidelines. Go outside and touch grass buddy.

AlecSchueler 1y ago

I think they call it security theatre.

zeroCalories 1y ago

The 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 ago
Are we now adding US to the list of countries cracking down on free speech?
- kmbfjr 1y ago
  Yes. 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 ago
    This 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 ago
  Obviously yes.
- leipie 1y ago
  For me it has already been on there for quite a while now. Is has just been getting quite a bit worse, since Trump 2
15155 1y ago
> anti-american but keeps their opinions to themself, and someone that has no opinions Why do we need to be admitting anti-American individuals to this country for any reason whatsoever? News flash: visas are a privilege, not a right.
- __s 1y ago
  Anti American is a fluid term Is it anti American to oppose annexing Canada? Careful what you reply, may affect your visa application
  - 15155 1y ago
    It truly does not matter how this opinion can shift with the political climate: foreigners aren't citizens, no matter how much folks would like this to be the case.
    - netsharc 1y ago
      > We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom -- freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It's fragile; it needs protection. Reagan is a hypocritical cunt of course, but how far we've fallen that now you might as well put a chain around Lady Liberty's neck, pull it down like the statues of Saddam Hussein or Assad (or I guess hanging is more appropriate, since the spiritual successors of the Confederancy is now in power), and replace it with a statue of redneck lady giving foreigners the middle finger, with "Fuck off!" written on the base.
      - 15155 1y ago
        Ah yes, because we don't automatically tolerate foreign political activists (or intelligence operatives, who cares, right?), freedom is all but lost, right?
        mandmandam 1y ago

DragonStrength 1y ago

No one is pretending this is about terrorism now. They're explicit this is about curbing political activism by foreign students. Some outside the US miss that because few countries would have given foreign students this much room for activism in the first place.

tuyguntn 1y ago
Do you think US embassy will reject political activism if it was against China?
- Tika2234 1y ago
  [dead]
- efitz 1y ago
  Do you think you would be granted a visa by China if your social media was full of anti-China rhetoric?
  - hearsathought 1y ago
    > Do you think you would be granted a visa by China if your social media was full of anti-China rhetoric? I bet you'd be granted a visa by china if your social media was full of anti-israel rhetoric though...
  - tuyguntn 1y ago
    it's strange that you are comparing democracy with a communism. Wasn't the whole premise of democracy to express yourself freely and the core idea was "rule by the people"? If country claims that they are democracy, then they should give people to add their opinion to rule the country, China is following its own core idea, ruled by a single party.
- dfxm12 1y ago
  People have been detained/face deportation for activism against other foreign countries, so why not? The point is: if the admin wants you gone, or doesn't want to let you in, they'll use anything as pretense.

noobermin 1y ago

Along with the push for ending birth right citizenship and detaining citizens the goal is a white ethnostate. I doubt Trump is that cognizant of that but Stephen Miller definitely is pushing for that.

ivape 1y ago
Yeah, I mean, what was that whole we’re going to bring white South African immigrants here and kick brown ones out? MAGA is a white supremacy movement, but calling this out in America is like trying to tell your best friend her husband is cheating on her. It’s going to be an ugly reveal and difficult conversation, but the facts are the facts.
15155 1y ago
> Along with the push for ending birth right citizenship Which other countries in the world allow pregnant vacationers to birth citizens?
- ivape 1y ago
  It appears most of the western hemisphere (Canada, USA, Mexico, most of South America).
  - apwell23 1y ago
    > western hemisphere oh yea to outnumber the native population they were taking over during colonial times. ironically it came back to bite them now that they are on the receiving end of replacement.
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
- noobermin 1y ago
  It's enshrined in the constitution. You're welcome to try to ammend the constitution to make it a white only nation. Good luck with that. I guess upping the bribes to certain scotus justices also works.

apwell23 1y ago

Doing that would be visa fraud. Why create any rule if ppl can commit fraud anyways? Why ask for educational qualifications for h1b because ppl can create fake certificates( many do) ?

marcinzm 1y ago
Because then anyone can be deported at any time without any more process needed since it's visa fraud. Maybe even get your citizenship revoked one day given how things are going.
Chris2048 1y ago
Would it? What makes aSM account "official"? If I make a burner account, it's still my account.
- apwell23 1y ago
  you have reveal all social media accounts not one of your choosing. ppl commenting here without even checking the basics :(
  - AlecSchueler 1y ago
    And if you deactivate the others?
    - Chris2048 1y ago
      It says "from the last five years"
      - AlecSchueler 1y ago
        So what happens if you deactivated an account within the past five years, you can't travel to the US?
  - Chris2048 1y ago
    Entry can be denied if you claim to have no social media accounts, so you can in fact only give one of your choosing to gain entry. Whether not disclosing any others is visa fraud is a matter of legal consideration iff other accounts are discovered before the collapse of the current administration.

Hilift 1y ago

> why the US thought that it'd be a good idea to vet social media accounts for visa applications. The catalyst was the campus takeovers by people wearing masks and causing disruption for months. That was a gift for the Republicans, delivered on a silver platter. They made that an issue every day in Congress from October 7 2023 until November 5 2024. It coincided with the resignation of several university presidents. Columbia University President Minouche Shafik Cornell Martha Pollack Liz Magill, University of Pennsylvania Claudine Gay Harvard Additionally, the US has a statutory requirement for biometric exit scans when a visitor leaves. It was completely ignored. There were entry scans, but no exit scan. The simple fact is they don't want anyone not like them coming to the US, and unauthorized entry has diminished significantly. It's also the reason for rejecting birthright citizenship, and deporting unauthorized persons to third country staging areas. The UK is in the same boat. The UK is currently spending ~£3 billion per year on accommodations, and costs are expected to triple. It's created profiteering companies and waves of human trafficking across Europe. France only recently agreed to stop them when they line up a row of 20 zodiacs to assault Dover. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation https://www.newsweek.com/full-list-college-presidents-who-have-resigned-amid-campus-protests-1939822 https://www.newsweek.com/full-list-college-presidents-who-ha... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/07/uk-asylum-seeker-accommodation-costs-over-decade-triple-to-15bn-nao https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/07/uk-asylum-seek... https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2720n2kkjo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2720n2kkjo

mixmastamyk 1y ago
Who are the they/them in your last two paragraphs?

dataflow 1y ago

> 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. The timestamps will immediately give it away if you try to pull that though. Not to mention that they could also (if they want) just harvest data on what accounts already exist at what point in time, to detect actions like this. Lots of data brokers have such data already. And they could just do some cursory searches for other accounts you might have too, if you don't deactivate them...

hearsathought 1y ago

> I don't get why the US thought that it'd be a good idea to vet social media accounts for visa applications. Since almost all major social media companies are american, and all major social media/tech companies are state/defense companies, the US already "vets" social media accounts of foreigners and most likely americans as well. This has nothing to do with "vetting" social media accounts. It's about scaring the world so that the world stops criticizing primarily israel. If we really want to "vet" foreigners, we'd be doing it secretly so that bad actors feel free to expose themselves on social media. This does the exact opposite. It's about controlling the narrative and preventing criticism of israel.

absurdo 1y ago
> It's about scaring the world so that the world stops criticizing primarily israel. You should back up this assertion with facts and evidence otherwise nobody will take it at face value and it will be categorized as drivel.
- hearsathought 1y ago
  Facts and evidence? I explained to you my reasoning. If you disagree with it fine. Let me ask you, why do you think this is happening all of a sudden? To "vet" foreigners? Yeah right. As I said, if we wanted weed out undesirable foreigners, we would want them to post freely on social media with any fear of repercussion. We wouldn't warn them about potentially having their social media scrutinized.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago
  It’s a green account whose entire comment history is railing on a single topic without ever citing sources. Flag and move on.
  - hearsathought 1y ago
    You keep breaking hn guidelines. Go outside and touch grass buddy.