The Trump administration is increasingly turning to social media as a national security tool to vet immigrants, stoking concerns the move could have a chilling effect on political speech in the U.S.
The State Department announced last week it is restarting interviews and processing foreign student visas, and applicants will now be required to make their social media accounts public for vetting or face potential denial.
The agency said it is looking for those “who pose a threat to U.S. national security,” but critics say the criteria is broad and blurs the line between national surveillance and public expression, especially on private social media accounts.
“This is new, it’s unprecedented,” said Greg Nojeim, the senior counsel and director of the Security and Surveillance Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology.
“It’s never before been the case that a person who had set their social media account to private would have to set it to public in order to be admitted to the United States,” he said.
The U.S. government has expanded its monitoring of social media over the past decade, but the Trump administration’s latest focus on student visas marks a new escalation of this practice.
Social media checks have “become more pervasive and ideologically driven over time,” the think tank Brennan Center for Justice wrote in a report this year.
Social media vetting begins at State Department
Under guidance announced last week, consular officers will conduct a “comprehensive and thorough vetting,” including of the online presence of all student and exchange visitor applicants, a State Department spokesperson told The Hill last week.
Visa applicants will be required to list all social media usernames or handles of every platform they used in the past five years, the spokesperson said. Omission of social media information could result in denial or ineligibility for future visas.
This was after the State Department paused all processing and new interview appointments for visa applications in May to update its social media policy.
Similar processes are also unfolding at other agencies like the Department of Homeland Security, where the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are surveying immigrants’ social media for antisemitic activity.
When pressed over the backlash, a State Department spokesperson said a “U.S. visa is a privilege, not a right.”
“As Secretary [Marco] Rubio said, ‘This is not about free speech. ... No one has a right to a student visa,’” the spokesperson said.
Confusion, concerns over criteria
It is not clear the specific content State Department consular officers will be looking for, though some believe the change is related to the Trump administration’s arrests of pro-Palestinian campus activists this year.
An agency spokesperson said the process will “ensure an applicant does not pose a risk to the safety and security of the United States and that he or she has credibly established his or her eligibility for the visa sought, including that the applicant intends to engage in activities consistent with the terms of admission.”
Some observers fear that vague criteria could confuse applicants and serve as a way for the government to stifle speech critical of the administration or misaligned with U.S. policy.
“Censoring the speech of non-citizens on social media seems to be a purpose of this requirement,” Nojeim told The Hill, adding users will likely be “more hesitant” to express themselves on social media.
“There’s a complete lack of safeguards to protect against arbitrary implementation,” said Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union. “It’s completely ripe for discrimination and profiling.”
Public expression concerns
While the Constitution's First Amendment does not apply to speech outside the U.S., critics are still alarmed over the administration policy’s larger implications for free speech, especially as the State Department also monitors the social media of student visa holders already in the U.S.
Lee Bollinger, the former president of Columbia University and a constitutional law professor, said social media vetting is “inconsistent with the spirit of the First Amendment.”
“You don’t have to find that there is a First Amendment right of foreign people to make a First Amendment claim,” said Bollinger, who specializes in free speech law and the First Amendment.
“There is an interest of US citizens being able to be around and to talk to and to hear from citizens abroad,” he said, adding, “It’s part of the First Amendment — not only to be able to speak freely without government interference and censorship, but it’s also a right to hear other people speak.”
While the U.S. government has an interest in ensuring people who are genuine threats to the nation are prohibited from the country, Bollinger noted it is a “very different policy” from basing it on one’s criticism of the United States.
When asked whether this would affect speech on U.S. campuses, Bollinger said “clearly yes,” while adding he is “fairly confident” courts would find social media vetting for any criticism of the United States would exceed the government’s power.
Even if visa applicants are approved, there is no clear answer on whether the government will stop monitoring their social media once they are in the U.S., noted Simon Marginson, a professor of higher education at the University of Oxford.
“People will self-censor if they want to sustain their visa,” Marginson said. “You invest a lot in these international education decisions. You invest money, you invest time, family, hopes, and you don’t want to jeopardize any of that.
“It’s a case where foreigners really won’t be able to exercise what we call normal civil and political rights of free speech."
The use of automation
These concerns are being amplified by the potential use of artificial intelligence (AI).
“Social media monitoring is not new ... it’s been problematic for a long time,” said Hamadanchy, adding, “It’s a good example of certain things that have been already ripe for abuse, and now you’ve got an administration who may take it to the next level.”
Various observers told The Hill they were confident a type of automation system, likely powered by artificial intelligence, would be involved in initially scanning these social media accounts.
It comes after Axios reported in March the State Department was planning to launch a “catch and revoke” effort to cancel the visas of foreign nations who appear to support U.S.-designated terror group Hamas.
This was slated to include AI-assisted reviews of the tens of thousands of existing student visa holders’ social media accounts.
While AI offers a way to boost efficiency in a tedious process, observers note it is still prone to misinterpretations and errors and could sweep up information on U.S. citizens in the process.
“It’s difficult enough to interpret dangerousness from a strongly stated political view when that statement happens in English, and it’s being reviewed by a human,” Nojeim said. “To do this at scale, the review will have to be done by a machine, and it will have to be done in multiple languages that may not be as well understood by that machine.”
“So the chance of error is magnified by the language issue.”
Lexi Lonas Cochran contributed.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Trump administration leans on social media in immigration fight )
Also on site :
- Samsung offers attractive preorder deals for its upcoming Galaxy foldable phones before the July Unpacked event
- NVIDIA Officially Launches Laptop GeForce RTX 5050 GPU; 2560 Shaders And 8GB GDDR7 Memory Confirmed
- Amazon to invest £40 billion in the UK over next three years