How the new U.S. visa rules affect your online privacy | Explained
The story so far: On June 23, the US Embassy in the United States in an X Post said, “Immediately valid, all individuals who apply for a non -immigrant visa for a non -immigrant visa are asked to adjust the privacy settings in all social media accounts to facilitate the veterinarians to create their identities and acceptability to the United States.” He said.
With this update, the process of securing certain types of US visas, including working there, has become precarious.
How does these students affect visa applications?
Since 2019, social media veterinarians for US visas, the new announcement indicates that foreign students have resisted unprecedented surveillance levels while traveling to the United States for work and/or work.
Some of the social media accounts, which should be open to the public for users now mark visa applications and examine, include Reddit, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, Twitter (now X), Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube (Bluesky, UNDERSED Blogging Beds or Personal Websites), except for a few Chinese social media platforms and other websites. This means that both personal and professional qualities, publications, answers, uploaded photos/videos, past comments, tagged images/publications, status updates, and even the “acclaimed” content should be made visible for US government officials as much as possible.
Social Media Veterinarian has been available since 2019 for US visas | Photo Loan: US Department of Foreign Affairs Website
Why do US immigrant officers control their social media accounts?
In the light of pro-Palestinian student protests in the US cities and Ice Anti-Buz (Migration and Customs Execution) demonstrations, the authorities want to enable Indian students to express anti-Israeli views during the ongoing conflicts in West Asia.
Visa applicants examining social media publications means that the authorities can check whether the individual’s views are compatible with the views of the conservative Trump government in the ruling conservative.
How open will the social media accounts be left open?
US visa seekers are asked to list all the social media tufts they have used in the last five years and then make them open to the public.
Users can first control a social media to clean their accounts and remove sensitive or personal media before opening their accounts. Juniors should carry out this activity with the guidance of a reliable adult. Notifications, application warnings, messaging filters and parental checks may also need to be updated to avoid interruption after the account is opened to the public.
No official guide has been published on how clear the accounts should be left. However, visa applicants who wish to play it safely can be seen as open to everyone until they pass the immigration checks after entering the USA after they send their applications, but visa applicants who are not comfortable to protect all social media accounts are required to contact the relevant institutions or acceptance officers to know that they want to be special.
Although it seems to be a way to avoid this difficulty to completely delete social media accounts, some technology companies keep deleted accounts active for several weeks or months. These accounts may appear in the search results when the veterinary process starts, probably endangers the visa application.
What are the risks of making social media accounts open to the public?
Privacy, censorship and safety risks are abundant. First of all, many Indian students applying for a US visa for academic study are generally small in high school. For them, it is more than just a personal choice to adjust social media accounts; It is very important for online security.
Many young users who learn to navigate in online areas can publish high personal content or photos and videos between special accounts, which can only secure the information that people can see their content. But now, those who hope to go to the United States for work will either have to explain their accounts to the public or to brush their personal content through their channels.
The new requirement will also make US visa applicants more vulnerable to digital security crimes such as bullying, hacked, sexual harassment, follow -up, blackmail, theft and Doxing.
Another potential threat that should be taken into consideration is the increase in advertising levels targeted through public accounts, including advertisements for children.
Is it legal to explain the social media accounts of visa applicants to the public?
Privacy experts have compared the US government’s new social media veterinary needs and compared the country’s approach to an authoritarian regime. However, as visa applicants can choose to ignore the request, they say that it is difficult to claim that the laws of confidentiality are broken, but they risk visa application.
Sophia Cope, a senior personnel lawyer of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an American group of digital rights, said that people have special social media accounts, such as wanting to interact and share with reliable people.
“The US government supports the violation of a basic privacy hygiene principle by asking them to set up students or social media accounts from students or social media accounts for visa veterinarians,” Cope said. Hindu.
“Punishing visitors to visit students or visitors from the general public or not to active on social media, the government invades the confidentiality of social media surveillance and invading the freedom of speech, and without being interpreted and misinterpreted, without being interpreted and impacting the security threat.
“The US should end this dangerous practice.”
Published – 27 June 2025 11:20
