[testfoobar]

Outside of just wanting privacy for its own sake, there are many, many reasons to keep social media profiles private: health privacy, sexual orientation privacy, relationship privacy, location privacy, financial privacy, etc.

“To facilitate this vetting, all applicants for F, M and J non-immigrant visas will be asked to adjust the privacy settings on all their social media profiles to ‘public’”, the official said.

[dashundchen]

The party who loves to scream about social credit scores in China is essentially implementing... A social credit score, where only government approved speech is allowed.

[tempodox]

I can already see it transform from “must not be critical” to “must be pro-American propaganda”.

One you see that extortion works, you tighten the screws to see how much you can get out of it before it flops.

[sneak]

Another of the thousand reasons people should delete their Facebook and Instagram accounts.

[irjustin]

Question: Does this create more problems?

i.e. "I don't have a social media"; "Sureeeee buddy"; "I really don't, I deleted it"; "We'll wait here until you do"

Some scary variation above.

[emodendroket]

Not having social media is itself considered suspicious in these same guidelines. Or at least that's what I read in the news when they started talking about this recently.

[jmye]

Wouldn’t that be likely to be taken as identical to having a locked one? I don’t use traditional social media, and never have, and have always assumed that would cause me to “fail” a test like this.

(Sorry, I mean this to read as a question, not an assertion.)

[Viliam1234]

Or create two accounts for each. One with your full name, where you only share kitten videos, another one pseudonymous that you will actually use. Unlock the official one for the officers.

[vFunct]

There’s also a lot of reasons to have a completely public social media account.

[Mountain_Skies]

Much of the world is against LBGTQ+ rights. If an immigrant has social media posts expressing open hatred and even calls for violence against people with sexual orientations not approved of in their home culture, will you still have an open mind about welcoming them in the US with open arms?

This isn't theoretical. Both China and India, the two countries that supply the most students to the US, prohibit marriage equality. Both have extensive discrimination throughout their societies, both at the government and cultural levels.

[UncleMeat]

The only students who've ever called me a homophobic slur were born in the US.

[kennywinker]

Until 2015 gay marriage was illegal in many states. Plenty here hold pretty nasty anti lgbtq beliefs. This is a bad argument for screening visa applicants for beliefs, and not what this new rule will be used for. It will be used to deny anyone critical of israeli genocide, people who think we shouldn’t destroy the planet’s climate, and people who think women should control their own bodies.

[sundaeofshock]

Yes. I wouldn’t be happy they hold those views, but I don’t support basing a person’s entry into the US on how the feel about Donald Trump.

Of course, your scenario is a big ol’ straw person, as those beliefs are not what they are screening for.

[bigyabai]

Many Americans have never seriously looked at a map before. Should they be categorically denied entry to foreign countries for their stereotypical ignorance?

Here in America, you can't put someone on trial for a crime they haven't committed. Even if you think they're from a suspicious country. That's called racial profiling, and it's forbidden by civil rights laws for a reason; nobody should have to tolerate the indignation of their peer's stupidity.

[voidUpdate]

I mean, given the current political climate, I think someone with posts like that would be welcomed easily, and people who are pro LGBT, especially pro-trans, would be denied outright

[digianarchist]

Right. That’s what these new powers will be used for. To defend LGBT folks in the United States. /s

[frollogaston]

To answer your question, yes those people should be welcome, yes I'm ok with people coming from China and India.