US deploys AI to revoke visas of foreign nationals supporting Hamas: Report

[aucisson_masque]

> The effort involves AI-assisted reviews of tens of thousands of student visa holders' social media accounts

> We see people marching at our universities and in the streets of our country ... calling for Intifada, celebrating what Hamas has done ... Those people need to go," Rubio stated.

No one want terrorist apologist in their country, but I think everyone can see how it's the cursor position that matters. Now you ban terrorist apologist, tomorrow you ban someone who criticized Israel and it's human rights violation.

I see no difference between the Hamas and an Israeli fanatic who claim the Arabians have no right to live on the sacred soil that God gave them 2 thousand year ago, legitimizing the bombardment of civilians, forced deportations of gaza citizens, illegal Israeli settlements and so on.

Yet this is only about one side.

I fear this is instead going to be used as a tool to shut freedom of talk when it's not supportive of Israel.

[thrance]

> tomorrow you ban someone who criticized Israel and it's human rights violation.

I think it's today, actually. They just want to censor any voice that would dare criticize Israel's abhorrent action. Pretending anyone who shows sympathy for the suffering of Palestinians supports Hamas is an old strategy.

And to think they thought Trump was to be "the most peaceful president ever" or that he would "restore free speech". What fools.

[churchill]

You fear? Or, it's all but guaranteed? The current administration has openly advanced Israel's plan to ethnically cleanse 2 million Palestinians from their homes. Trump specifically stated that he's giving Israel everything they need to "finish the job."

I don't believe in giving both parties the benefit of the doubt anymore.

[oefrha]

> this is only about one side

The ones in power pushing this literally fit into the other group you described, so what a surprise.

[aqme28]

Unless they open-source the AI, I assume it's just going to revoke visas of students with Arabic names or students with even a modicum of support for Palestinians. Then they can launder that practice by saying an AI did it.

[disqard]

Technology truly acts as an amplifier of human intentions.

[guappa]

I love how they insist that china is the terrible country that does nothing else, while in the west we have freedom.

[jajko]

Well most of the west still does, its just that US is right now much bigger evil and bully to rest of the world than China is or ever was. Expect some realignment in next 4 years, maybe oil won't be yet traded in CNY but who knows.

[anal_reactor]

I'm disappointed, but not surprised. Seeing the American culture from Europe, it's obvious to me that "American freedom" is a meme. Not saying that Europe is perfect, but I'm happy to live on this side of the pond.

[shihab]

Let me say as an international PhD student- I have marched for the freedom of Palestinian people, talk about it, and I won’t allow this Big Brother tactic influence my decision one bit going forward.

The US govt can do whatever it damn pleases.

[siva7]

Sure it can, it's the US.

[Mrdarknezz]

Surely this will not have any unforeseen consequences whatsoever

[guappa]

I'm sure they are completely forseen.

[duke_sam]

This is one of the many initiates where the process and details matter. What’s the due process here, can people see the prompt that judges them to be supporters? Is AI just highlighting “supporting” content for human review?

Even if you support the idea in principle, the actual practical implementation should be treated with skepticism.

[guappa]

I think it all boils down to: if sounds_muslim(name) → expel()

[jimvdv]

Even if it is intended as a hint to human observers, during a big scandal in my country a few years ago turned out all the gov officials where blindly following the computer advise. Many where falsely accused of fraud by tax authorities, almost all where from ethnic minorities.

[rwmj]

There's no "due process" for US visa applications. The process is, possibly deliberately, kafka-esque. Edit: I wrote about my visa process here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23942466

[pbalau]

> can people see the prompt that judges them to be supporters?

Not all AIs are LLMs...

[feverzsj]

What about those who support Russian invaders?

[aucisson_masque]

You mean liberation of Ukraine from nazi ?

If not, I'm afraid you're going to get your visa revoked..

[churchill]

Oh, shut up! Ukraine is not "our greatest ally." They never wear suits to meetings, and they never say thank you. Why should we care what happens to them? /s

[torlok]

This bot just scans people's social media. I would assume you can just fake someone's social media account and get their visa denied. I'm sure this thing won't account for multiple people having the same name. It would also be funny to run this on Elon's account and see if he'd get denied for his thinking emoji replies to antisemites, or to run this on a fake Rubio account where he's terribly photoshoped next to Bin Laden.

[nithssh]

Land of the free after all

[muscomposter]

Money is the only free thing in America

so an American citizen’s freedom is directly correlated with their net worth in USA dollars

[blitzar]

Free speech, I fear, is in retreat.

[yubblegum]

A detailed and documented research into the provenance of Hamas:

https://swprs.org/why-israel-created-hamas/

[qnleigh]

Other issues aside, how does this get around the constitutional right to free speech? There must be some court ruling that lets speech affect the visa process.

[unsnap_biceps]

If it's before they get here, there's no constitutional right at play. They're not a citizen nor in the US.

Once they're here, it would be weighted against their rights and the public interests. Previously I would assume it would get shot down by SCOTUS, but it seems like a coin flip these days imho.

[ChrisArchitect]

[dupe]

Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43285384

[archagon]

Student visas for Hamas support today, citizenship for criticism of the president tomorrow. Welcome to AI hell.

[palmotea]

AI is going to usher in a wonderful world of increased surveillance and authoritarianism. It will be a truly transformative technology, and isn't is great that Silicon Valley is working so hard to bring it to us, as hard and fast as possible?

[arresin]

Maga?

[cookiemonsieur]

MIGA more like

[maxglute]

Butt hurt that non American got your promotion or lab spot? Queue fake pro hamas social media profiles to remove said competition.

[jjcob]

Another example of history repeating itself... 80 years ago, McCarthy and the HUAC were going after alleged communist supporters, now the Trump admin is going after alleged Hamas supporters.

Maybe we should all study more of history, with an open mind, instead of assuming that everything is different now and people have never been in a similar situation before.

[text0404]

> 'Supporting' in this context means committing crimes including acts of violence.

this is incorrect. Rubio has stated quite plainly that it's based on monitoring speech on social media, and made no mention of "crimes" or "violence". furthermore, simply being anti-Zionist (against an ethnostate built on the colonization of an existing population) is now considered antisemitism by the United States [1]. this used to be a far-right position but through lobbying has become normalized.

[1] https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-resolutio...