People walking on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on April 15, 2025. (Credit: Joseph Prezioso/AFP)
Foreigners wishing to study in the United States will have their social media accounts scrutinized for anti-American content, according to new guidelines from the State Department announced on Wednesday, which will resume processing applications.
Applicants from outside the U.S. will be specifically asked to adjust the privacy settings of all their social media accounts to 'public' mode so that consular officers can scan the content, according to a senior State Department official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity. U.S. consular officers will perform a "comprehensive and thorough review of all students and visitors participating in an exchange program," the official said. This "enhanced verification will allow us to ensure that anyone attempting to come to our country is properly screened."
In late May, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered embassies and consulates to suspend all applications for student visas pending new guidelines on applicants' social media post verification. An executive order issued by U.S. President Donald Trump in January, on his first day in office, called for increased scrutiny of people entering the United States to ensure they "do not have hostile attitudes towards its citizens, their culture, their government, their institutions, or their founding principles."
Since coming into office, Trump has come down hard on a widespread anti-war movement that saw protests erupt on campuses across the country. Students and faculty alike demanded an end to the Gaza war and scrutiny into the relationships between their universities and Israel, which is currently on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice, and whose prime minister and former minister of defense are the subject of arrest warrants at the International Criminal Court.
Trump administration's battle against universities
Since then, the Trump administration has engaged in a series of battles against universities, canceling thousands of visas, threatening massive funding cuts and seeking to ban Harvard University from hosting foreign students. Many in the Republican Party accuse America's elite universities of increasing their foreign student population, who pay exorbitant fees, for financial gain.
However, Rubio has largely revoked visas of students who have led demonstrations critical of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip. In April, the Department of Homeland Security indicated that foreign student applications would be reviewed for any "anti-Semitic activity" that may lead to a visa denial.
American universities attract hundreds of thousands of foreign students every year, particularly from Asia, especially Chinese and Indian students. For more than a decade, the U.S. government has been checking the social media of people seeking to immigrate to the United States or obtain a green card.