Students applying for US visa cleaning up their social media accounts

New Delhi: Indian students, looking forward to study in the US, are deleting their social media posts to bypass Trump administration’s social media vetting, NDTV reported.

In the wake of pro-Palestine and anti-Semitic protests involving foreign students in the US, Trump administration has included social-media vetting as part of processing visa applications.

The aspirants’ activities on platforms including Facebook, X, LinkedIn, and TikTok are being vetted to assess their suitability to enter the United States.

The college campuses in the US last year witnessed protests after Israel launched a bombing campaign on Gaza after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.

Now that Trump administration started the crackdown, students are deleting their whole accounts, fearing even innocuous political jokes and views might gain attention during visa interviews.

Liking and sharing of contents that the US authorities deem inadmissible, according to visa counsellors, could lead to rejection of visa, while sudden deletion could ‘raise eyebrows’.

India Today quoted Mamta Shekhawat, founder of Gradding.com as saying that ‘Immigration authorities require student visa applicants to provide their social media handles for the previous five years, allowing them to make character evaluations and determine whether and how the applicant's professional and academic background matches the visa objectives’.

Mamta Shekhawat warned that even ‘the smallest hint of political or violent activism or controversial remarks’ could raise suspicion at the time of scrutinizing visa application.

Pointing out the risks in sudden deletion of posts, she advised the students to strike a balance between ‘authenticity and aspirational online behaviour’.

Education consultant Meenal Damani warned aspiring students to refrain from ‘joining, posting about, or engaging with political movements online’, adding that even sharing opinion of others could be viewed as ‘endorsement’.

It is reported that the US government is using artificial intelligence to identify foreign students who ‘appear to support’ terror groups.

A student, who claimed to have been ‘very vocal’ about politics on Linkedin, said he had deleted his account after a visa counsellor warned that his visa could be rejected.

‘As soon as I applied, I stopped attending protests. Even a single picture online could lead to my visa being rejected,’ he was quoted as saying.

A PhD student at Jawaharlal Nehru University deleted his social media posts including pro-Palestine, Gaza casualty content and uninstalled several apps from his phone, after a US university paused his post-doctoral appointment.