Student visa applicants will now be forced to make their social media accounts public

It's going to be weird when there's no handle or social media at all. I nuked my social media around 2020/2021, I was legit tired if people posting travel pics and pretending everything was alright. Oh by the way one could make a fake page just for this, but deep down we know we don't care.

If you say that you have no social media accounts they will probably assume you're lying and deny you.
- I imagined. Probably it's better to have a public one where you have the kind of things they want to see.
- Actually they ask for the last five years, deleted or not.
How can you post here if you haven’t had social media accounts since 2021?
- Well well this is a recent account after all, so it is possible. Also, I do have a public social media, but it's either used for messaging or it's empty (follow - only).
.... but isn't Lemmy social media? And you're here. (Although I guess it is more accurately called antisocial media)
- I don't think Lemmy would count as social media but that said, you can easily create a dummy account that just, for example, posts pictures of moths or beans or bread or whatever.
- If you loosely follow the definition of social media to mean “Website where you can interact with people in any way” then yes.
  But I think the average colloquial use of the term social media really refers to websites where you make a real life personal profile and share things on that profile. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. You as the individual are the focus of those types of sites.
  The (original at least) point of sites like Lemmy and Reddit is sharing information where you as an individual are not the focus. Hence posting to communities rather than your own wall or profile, the use of usernames over real names etc.
- Lemmy also can’t be used non-publicly so a pointless distinction considering the context.
- Lemmy is social media, but when people say "social media" they're typically referring to one of two things. They either mean all social media including legacy forums or they mean media that is directly tied to their real names.
- I've heard social media where you interact with strangers instead of "friends" referred to as "antisocial media".

Europe has great universities. Come study here.

Some even free too
- free for Americans too?
Some of them no longer allow foreign students and some of them charge an absolute fortune to foreigners.

So an applicant with dangerous people in their life, maybe an abusive family member or a stalker ex, is forced to expose their accounts they would otherwise keep private. That's the first bad-case scenario that comes to mind, I'm sure there are more.

I propose a new rule - if so for me, then so for thee. Anything imposed on legal applicants is also imposed on the lawmakers who put it in place.

There is no rule against deleting accounts, my friend.
- But one shouldn't have to.

applicants for several kinds of student visas would be required to "adjust the privacy settings on all of their personal social media accounts to 'public'

They are so ridiculous.

But ofc it's not going to happen. They can lick my.

It already is happening. Source: a person getting a visa now-ish.
- I can't believe there are still people saying stuff like this won't happen.

Ah damn, I was a state actor who was going to smuggle in sleeper agents to perform sabotage and espionage in the US, but I can't figure out how to create a fake social media profile. I admit defeat.

At least you're not a teenager that has ever expressed any sympathy for Palestinians. Those are the real threat.

What the hell, I went to check the official website for my embassy and this is true??

Yep, here's a US government source.
https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2025/06/announcement-of-expanded-screening-and-vetting-for-visa-applicants/

Yet another reason not to study there. Ideological screening, what a joke.

make social media private

say "i don't have social media"

problem solved.

gets rejected at the border because officer doesn't believe person doesn't have social media accounts
???
no profit
- I imagine this is what will happen even though it's absurd. Like it's actively going to become detrimental to not be trackable via an online presence connected to your identity because there are people who are mad that you won't let them invade your privacy. Lol
That is a fucking terrible idea. If they later find it, they'll lock you up and maybe later throw you out. The financial risk makes no sense.
- Find what?
  I haven't had "traditional" social media for years and what I did have has since been deleted, or so I'm told.
- Then do it for real. Social media is kinda shit anyway.
- I bet the nazi's will have fake "real" ones ready to go either way. When they want to take their current purge to the next level, you're fucking done.
  don't go to shithole america
  Actual problem solved.

This will be a boon for stalkers.

Trash country continues circling the drain.

Remember folks, always vote against Republicans in the most likely manner to prevent them from having any level of power.

There are plenty of schools in Europe. There is no reason for essentially the equivalent of 1930s Jewish people to study in essentially Hitler's Germany in the 30s right when the smarter people were getting out.

United States schools have many advantages over European ones. For example we don't need a lengthy unit on WW2 era Germany, you get it for free by walking outside.

What happens if you don't have any social media? I haven't posted under my name on anything in a decade...

Honestly speaking I see a future where people like us are left out of an integral part of the economy.
- Many jobs will already disqualify applicants if they don’t have any social media, or refuse to provide account names. The rise of cancel culture means many businesses are extremely risk-averse, and don’t want any employees who are prone to posting inflammatory things.
You will have to disclose your lemmy account.
- I'm gonna go out on a limb and say if a random immigration official knows about your anonymous lemmy account you were already mega-fucked on the immigration front. They've been watching you and probably have a 3 inch thick file on you before you walked in the door.
- Welp here it is.
  I love trump!

Hello ICE agents, let me walk you through my DeviantArt account. And here's my second DeviantArt account dedicated to the weird shit.

“Yeah, I don’t have one. Cheers.”

</curb_your_enthusiasm_end_credits_theme>

like they'll belive that

well, have burner social media accounts as well

They say they will find those "with AI". And they will, for true or for false, because they only want another weapon to use against the "undesirables".
- How many false positives will it have when trying to find accounts for John Smith
"What do you mean this 5 year old account has no posts?"
"Work made me get one, but the UI gives me headaches. I think it gives everyone headaches really."

"I don't use social media and never have."

So what are they going to do if someone fires back with this? Deny their visa because they didn't agree to be spied on by a few of the worst companies on planet fucking earth? Is the government going to be able to somehow make me prove that I don't have social media?

We have the stupidest people in charge right now.

Imagine a country, they spent billions over the last two centuries to build influence and they got to the top. Foreigners are willing to pay thousands of dollars for getting a degree in such country but no, let them go to a different country and get influenced by somebody else

Why the hell would anyone apply for a visa to come here?

That country want to be alone, so leave them alone!

You know, when I got my current job, the people in my department said"we tried to find your Facebook but couldn't" and I said 'yeah that's because I don't have one."

13 years later, still don't.

Though honestly even our work teams chat would probably be too spicy for these motherfuckers. They just want a pretext to keep out anybody. Like some law impossible to follow, that they can selectively enforce.

*social media accounts that they know of

I question this, and really, their availability.
With prep-time, any prosecutor and crew could dig up every tiny detail about you in about a week, including every single site any related IP addresses to you have been to and how much time you spend there and all of your dns queries.
But here, on the spot. "You tell us".
Their lack of effort is correlated to the amount of spite they have for any individual person. It's like using a magnifying glass. If they actually gave a shit, they wouldn't have to ask.

Are kids living under helicopter parents that want them to study abroad even allowed to have a social media account by the parents?

It’s because the morons running the country don’t think that constitutional freedoms apply to non-citizens. No freedom of speech if your speech hurts their feelings. Fuckin aye

And how long before that applies to citizens too? If Free Speech and Free Expression on the whole aren't dead yet, they've got a foot in the grave
- Well it’s been like 5 months and we’re already here, so maybe another 6 months to a year?
- Bout two months ago at the latest
They already didn't think constitutional rights applied to anyone within 100 miles of the boarder. Hell, the SC(in 75) had to say, yes, children are citizens and also had rights.

People are missing the point here. Its not about this being a valid strategy to catch anyone but its a fascist strategy to display who's in control over you when you come here.

Delete all social media problem solved

Can't proved they have been deleted and can't prove you don't have more.
Problem created.
They trick is to keep some harmless ones. They're not going to believe you don't have social media.
I have two social media accounts that I just use to discuss the weather and post pictures of the cat.

Brain drain away!

Because it's completely impossible to create a fake account that worship trump and has a lot of maga posts

Its not about logic it's about fascism - they want everyone to know who has power on you even if it doesn't actually do much in practice.

Most based article from a Libertarian news site I've ever read.

And what if I have Instagram but I don't publish anything on it? lol