US to review social media posts of student visa applicants

AFP :

Foreigners seeking to study in the United States will be required to make public their social media profiles to allow screening for anti-American content under new State Department guidelines released on Wednesday.
The State Department had temporarily paused issuing visas for foreign students at the end of May while it came up with the new social media guidance and it will now resume taking appointments.
“The enhanced social media vetting will ensure we are properly screening every single person attempting to visit our country,” a senior State Department official said.
US consular officers will conduct a “comprehensive and thorough vetting of all student and exchange visitor applicants,” the official said.
To facilitate the screening, student visa applicants will be asked to adjust the privacy settings on all their social media profiles to “public,” the official said.
In an executive order on his first day as president, Donald Trump called for increased vetting of persons entering the United States to ensure they “do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles.”