These definitions are intentionally broad and designed to censor criticism of Israel. You have more freedom to criticize the US Government than to criticize a foreign country.
WatchDog
Wow these are incredibly broad, in particular:
> Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.
There are plenty of dual citizens that would proudly admit that their first loyalty is to Israel.
Other examples from the document use the term "Jews as a people", whereas this example seems to apply to accusing any individual.
Although perhaps a generous interpretation of the example, is that it excludes Israeli dual citizens, because Israel would be one of "their own nations"
Aloisius
The preface to the list of examples is rather important:
> Contemporary examples of antisemitism ... could, taking into account the overall context, include...:
Context is important. The examples are not true in all cases, but rather context dependent.
Accusing Jewish citizens of your country of being more loyal to Israel than their country simply because they're Jewish? Antisemitic.
Accusing a specific Jewish citizen that has said they are more loyal to Israel? Not antisemitic.
mjlee
The vast majority of American Jewish citizens are not dual US/Israeli citizens. Very roughly, there are about 1,000,000 Israelis living abroad worldwide and the US Jewish population is around 7,000,000.
plextoria
> There are plenty of dual citizens that would proudly admit that their first loyalty is to Israel.
Plenty of dual citizens that are not Israeli citizens and would admit the same thing, but we don't go around throwing such accusations at them.
> this example seems to apply to accusing any individual.
Does it? It would be accusing the individual just because they are part of a certain group.
cherryteastain
> but we don't go around throwing such accusations at them
Simply not true. There is plenty of rhetoric about immigrants (even 2nd gen+) in Western countries being accused of being disloyal to their Western citizenship in favor of their ethnic origin countries. Chinese, Indians, Middle Easterners, Latin Americans etc are all accused of this; see the recent riots in LA for a very recent example. Yet this insinuation is made illegal only with respect to one country only for whatever reason.
> Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.
I'm sure this definition is going to be applied to Zionist organizations that do this on a regular basis.
notjulianjaynes
Yeah this one is funny because it's literally the stated mission of several U.S. based Zionist/anti-antisemetic organizations.
nailer(dead)
[flagged]
sorcerer-mar
Making laws against saying otherwise is disloyalty to America, though probably pushed more by antisemites trying to foment antisemitism than anyone else.
dgellow
> Although perhaps a generous interpretation of the example
Absolutely zero reasons to give the current US government the benefit of the doubt
bsoles
I find it ironic that the current administration wants to filter out students based on their negative views of Israel when the same administration has literal Nazis in their ranks. I think that the quoted definition/criteria is just a ploy to ban students from undesirable countries from entering the country.
wolfcola
Donald Trump has done this multiple times, saying that Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats are disloyal or traitors because he treats Israel better.
nailer
> whereas this example seems to apply to accusing any individual
I think citizens is meant to mean “American citizens” as opposed to Jewish people that are citizens of other countries. It seems intended to prevent people saying Jewish people cannot be loyal to America, though I agree the wording is clumsy.
lazyeye
It's all so confusing. Defending Jewish people is very unexpected behaviour for someone, who we've been told for years now, is a nazi...
viraptor
It's just convenient right now, not a part of ideology of protecting minorities. Consider how this is effectively a type of targeted affirmative action just a short time after all dei was the devil and had to be erased. If Israel does something the gov doesn't support, I expect all of this to go away.
sofixa
That's because people confuse generic fascism with nazism. A big part of the difference is the virulent antisemitism.
Trump and his friends are fascists (corporatism, corruption, strongman rule, us vs them with human rights abuses vs the "them", etc).
lazyeye
I dunno...the Dems campaign funds were 3 times the Republicans at the last election so the corporate donors were very much on their side.
And the corruption within USAID was off the charts..billions of dollars shovelled out the door to Democrat friends.
The bypassing of the first amendment by pressuring social media companies to self-censor.
And the weaponisation of the legal system to take out a political opponent.
I think your description far more accurately describes the Democrats than the Republicans.
It's pretty simple, Trump hates Muslims more than he hates Jews ("Fine people on both sides", Kanye & Feuntes, cancelling funding for domestic anti-semitism programs...). This is the Muslim ban under a different guise.
const_cast
When people say that Trump is a Nazi, they mean in the fascist "enemy from within" type of way. As in they're using Nazi as a drop-in for fascist because Nazi Germany was the most popular fascist nation that everyone knows.
They probably shouldn't do that and should just say fascist.
lazyeye
Yes I guess nazis were the "most popular fascist nation".
Interestingly there were alot of themes in nazi ideology that could almost be considered left-wing.
They believed in the dignity of the German working class man for example and that the Jewish people represented big business and were a corruption on society etc.
A common misconception. Hitler was a big supporter of creating Israel (which didn't exist at the time) too. Why? Because the point of Israel was to make the Jews go far away from Europe, where Hitler didn't want them to be.
lazyeye
So ummm..are you saying Trump is defending the Jewish state so that eventually all the Jewish people in the US can be moved there? Trying to understand your logic here...
People who think Israel is white probably never been there. Similar about apartheid, if you look at actual laws quoted as evidence of apartheid they don't come close to places like Saudi Arabia or Malaysia and honestly a bunch of other countries who have their own laws of return/restricted citizenship/political representation/cultural representation etc (even South Korea has it all)
But obviously this is not an excuse for Israel government supporting religious orthodox extremists and their settlements and aggression against Muslims in the area near Jordan. If you just take the situation there then it is basically a war zone.
If West Bank was considered part of Israel then I can see elements of apartheid but people who say it's apartheid also say West Bank is a separate country. You can't have apartheid in another country. Call it invasion/occupation or apartheid, but pick one? (Also yes this is whataboutism but what Russia is doing is orders of magnitude worse if invasions are considered.)
Yes I think they like to camouflage a very basic, garden variety hatred behind a cloak of supposed "virtue" but really they are just haters, plain and simple.
They accuse others of being nazis so that they themselves can be nazis.
Some interesting maps thankyou.
ItCouldBeWorse
I think its a real interesting challenge, from a hacker perspective. How do you bootstrap a culture, that spirals into this minima, to recover and redevelop a interest in science and cultural development, without external intervention or enforcement.
You only have the Robinson Crusoe elements you start out with and the technology and external culture that is not actively rejected by maximum religious fervor.
If all other parts of humanity got stuck in this mindset, how could a open culture redevelop from this? Its really tough, i bow my head to the Houdini who pulls it off.
Like - can you school a child, without school, only on youtube videos - or with some teacher LLM, downloaded to an illegal phone, smuggled in and only capable to run during the day on some battered solar.
CuriouslyC(dead)
[flagged]
lazyeye
Either that or what you are saying is complete nonsense and is much more a rationalisation of your own beliefs than a reflection of anyone elses..
> There are plenty of dual citizens that would proudly admit that their first loyalty is to Israel
This is legitimately debatable. If your allegiance is first to a foreign state, in my view, you should have to relinquish your American citizenship.
mathieuh
> How does one hate a country, or love one? Tibe talks about it; I lack the trick of it. I know people, I know towns, farms, hills and rivers and rocks, I know how the sun at sunset in autumn falls on the side of a certain plowland in the hills; but what is the sense of giving a boundary to all that, of giving it a name and ceasing to love where the name ceases to apply? What is love of one's country; is it hate of one's uncountry? Then it's not a good thing. Is it simply self-love? That's a good thing, but one mustn't make a virtue of it, or a profession... Insofar as I love life, I love the hills of the Domain of Estre, but that sort of love does not have a boundary-line of hate. And beyond that, I am ignorant, I hope.
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
strogonoff
Allegiance is not love. Allegiance is recognising yourself as part of some whole. It’s not impossible to feel that and also dislike or even hate the whole, though it probably would not come without psychological issues unless you channel that into political activity to effect what you think is a positive change to the whole. It’s complicated.
In terms of what dictates your action, true allegiance is more significant: it is possible to really love somebody and not do something for their sake, but if you really are a part of something then it’s not much of a choice.
Some people, culturally or temperamentally, have an allegiance to their family and do not care beyond that. Some feel allegiance to a community (whether defined religiously or geographically or elsewise). Some people feel allegiance to nothing. In the US specifically feeling belonging to one’s state I presume could be more powerful than belonging to the country. It is not always or not everywhere that people feel a strong allegiance to a country, even if they always lived in one and never thought of moving.
Among people who do feel country allegiance, I would imagine it is rare to feel belonging to two different countries with a similar force. Perhaps those people do exist (e.g., someone who mostly lived in country A but was born to immigrants from country B and also spent a lot of time in country B), and then it would be mighty unfair if they had to pick one, but people I know can usually classify one citizenship as “convenience” and another one as “true”.
Comprehensively assessing true allegiances (or lack thereof) of a prospective citizen is fraught, but as phrased the question does not actually require that. For 99.9% of people, “do you feel allegiance first to a foreign state?” is pretty unobtrusive and has a clear answer. The main caveat is, of course, that those for whom the answer is positive will almost certainly just lie.
In case using tangentially related quotes is considered smarter than original thought, I looked one up too and I raise you Orson Scott Card:
“Every person is defined by the communities she belongs to and the ones she doesn’t belong to… a person who really believes she doesn’t belong to any community at all invariably kills herself, either by killing her body or by giving up her identity and going mad.”
jaoane
I love when people come here with quotes from books like this is the ultimate argument or something.
If that's your view then the only logical conclusion is to not allow dual citizenship at all.
FirmwareBurner
Many country don't allow dual citizenship precisely for these issues.
GrantMoyer
Any law that allows a government to renounce people's citizenship for broad, vague reasons is a very, very bad law. Regardless of its intentions, it will be used as a tool to subvert the rights of citizens even outside the target group.
larrled
Amazed to see such a take after what happened in LA. Obviously the median immigrant has strong feelings of loyalty to their mother soil as can be witnessed by the huge Mexican flags and the direct testimony of many individuals. Should we deport all those people who swear loyalty to “La Rasa”? If we want immigrants, and we should because we need them to lead us into the future, we need to be realistic about their loyalties. People are proud of their race/nationality, and immigrants often even moreso.
_pigpen__
The US State of California WAS Mexico in 1848. Much of California still is Mexico. The personal notion of "mother soil" may have nothing to do with current political boundaries.
alephnerd
The Chicano movement made their own flag back in the Cesar Chavez era. 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Gen Los Angeleños of Mexican origin could have used (and plenty did) and a sign finger portion of protestors made sure to incorporate the US flag as well, but a significant portion simply did not realize that the Mexican flag is not viewed as an ethnic marker outside of CA.
spwa4
Wow ... this will suck. Islam, the ideology, either is a state, or meant to be a state (just ask a few muslims, they'll explain. Also historically islam was a state until 1918/1923, and died in WW1, with the leader of islam, the caliph, abandoning islam)
And, frankly, while this is most prominent with Islam, that religions describe their goal to be a single state and trying to be a single state is the norm, not the exception. Christianity is the exception here that does not want to have state power (even though that rule screams "compromise with the Roman emperor", and hasn't exactly been followed very well once Christians were well established)
So no more muslims allowed in the US then? In fact no religion allowed except Christianity or revering the US directly somehow?
Propelloni
Yes, this will suck. No argument from me.
However, I disagree with your conception of Islam as a state, even if it was explained to you by Muslims. The strongest argument I can build from your statements is that, according to the reference to the end of the Sunni Caliphate in 1923,
p1) only Sunnis are Muslims, and
p2) the Caliphate is unique, and
p3) the Sunni Caliphate of 1923 is the original one, thus
c) it was the state of Islam.
We can disprove all of these premises. p1) is obvious, there are more Muslim religions than just Sunnis. The earliest schism was the Sunni-Shiites split, happening immediately after the first prophet's death.
About p2), while I'm fuzzy on the details, I'm pretty sure that between the 900s and the 1900s there were at least 3 major, parallel Caliphates and also a bunch of smaller Caliphates. Geographically they were even sometimes overlapping. It might be interesting that the Caliphate of the Ottoman Empire (the one in question) was a Hanafist (a Sunni splinter group) Caliphate.
On p3), the Sunni caliphate of 1923 was reestablished after a 300 year "hiatus" by the Ottoman Emperor to lay claim on Crimea. It had no representation besides a leader, the Sultan. Before the dissolution of the major Sunni Caliphate in the 1500s it relocated several times, from today's Syria to today's Iraq, to then and now Egypt. Thus we can say that the Caliphate had no continuous existence. We can furthermore say that the time the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire was the Caliph, it was because it was a diplomatic ploy of the secular power of the Ottoman Empire.
Therefore, c) must be wrong. There are more Muslims than Sunnis, the Sunni Caliphate wasn't unique, and the Caliphate that ended in 1923 was not the original one.
A less philosophical counter-argument could be the vigorous infighting between different Muslim groups we see today. I'm curious how the war on Iran changes that, if at all.
Does that mean all Americans should be stripped of their other citizenship since they have allegiance to a foreign state? For example Barron Trump is a dual citizen.
peterlada
Totally disagree.
JumpCrisscross
> Totally disagree
Hence debatable.
Let me escalate: I think such a bill would find bipartisan support. Right now might be a good time to attempt it.
I hate the idea of revoking citizenship. But a question about swearing, on naturalisation, that your supreme allegiance is to America should be incredibly popular to secure.
The point is that is may be admitedly true on the part of the one accused.
In general, you should be wary of "forms of antisemitism" (or similar "forms of x-ism/x-phobia/etc"). Such things usually consists of the defensible but vacuous notion that "doing X in an antisemetic way is antisemetic", while attempting to imply that doing X is antisemetic in general, regardless how it's done, or at the least that doing X is suspect. But the only proof that has been provided in such cases is that X has ocassionally been done in an antisemetic way, which you could say for just about anything. Since X in these cases is not per se anti semetic, it is more helpful to identify what antisemetic thing has often been done alongside it, and be on the lookout for that, instead of for X.
slg
What is a context in which it is acceptable to say that an American's loyalty to this country can't be trusted because of their ethnicity/religion? Some of these definitions are too broad, but this is not the example to use in that argument. Accusations of dual loyalty are widely recognized as antisemitism.
What did I say that made you think I support the ICE kidnappings? I was making a very specific point that you seemingly received as a much different general point.
sibhezt(dead)
[flagged]
chasd00
Thanks for some actual information. I’m trying to find the directive to force student social media profiles to be public but can’t find anything yet. This article mentions everything in the wsj article that I could read (no sub) but makes no mention of requiring profiles be “public”.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/18/social-media-screen...
ddeck
>I’m trying to find the directive to force student social media profiles to be public but can’t find anything yet.
It's on all the US embassy sites, although it says "are requested":
Effective immediately, all individuals applying for an F, M, or J nonimmigrant visa are requested to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media accounts to ‘public’ to facilitate vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the United States under U.S. law.
> It's on all the US embassy sites, although it says "are requested"
The smart ones won’t sign to it. The dumb ones will take too long to arrest and charge.
ascorbic
They'll just deny them a visa.
hearsathought
Does the DHS also screen for people who post anti-chinese, anti-russian, anti-canadian, anti-mexican, etc social media posts? Why screen for anti-israel comments only? I'm guessing they are not screening for anti-palestinian or anti-muslim posts.
Imagine if DHS said they are going to ban anyone who criticizes china or russia or saudi arabia from traveling to the US? Both the republicans and democratics would be raising hell. Why the silence when it comes to israel?
What Homeland is DHS securing? The US or Israel? Why is it that so much of our political class openly and unabashedly act like agents of israel? Doesn't matter who you vote for. Republican or democrat. As soon as they are elected, they all grovel for israel. How many wars are we going to fight for israel? How many american colleges are we going to attack for israel? How many people are we going to censor for israel? Just doesn't make any sense.
jampekka
> Why is it that so much of our political class openly and unabashedly act like agents of israel?
According to Jimmy Carter:
"The many controversial issues concerning Palestine and the path to peace for Israel are intensely debated among Israelis and throughout other nations — but not in the United States. For the last 30 years, I have witnessed and experienced the severe restraints on any free and balanced discussion of the facts. This reluctance to criticize any policies of the Israeli government is because of the extraordinary lobbying efforts of the American-Israel Political Action Committee and the absence of any significant contrary voices.
It would be almost politically suicidal for members of Congress to espouse a balanced position between Israel and Palestine, to suggest that Israel comply with international law or to speak in defense of justice or human rights for Palestinians."
Carter was of course widely (and absurdly) slandered as an antisemite. He probably wouldn't get a visa.
EvgeniyZh(dead)
[flagged]
const_cast
> Oh yeah, "Jews control the government", such a new trope that has nothing to do with antisemitism.
He didn't say that.
> know two members of Congress speaking frequently in defense of Palestine
This is your evidence? Really? I mean, do you guys hear yourselves?
Two members of congress? Out of hundreds? Two members who, might I remind everyone, are constantly accused of being anti-American communists?
> Was it almost politically suicidal for them?
Yes! These two are treated like the scum of the Earth by 100% of the American right and 80% of the American left!
It's not even debatable that the US is absurdly pro-Israel. I don't know what we're even arguing here. Zionists should all agree that Zionism is good, right? So why are we arguing that Zionists are some sort of minority? You should be ecstatic that our government is explicitly Zionist!
It is a litmus test: Israel is the most controversial western (not middle eastern) country and if you don’t criticize it, there is a good chance you will not criticize any western nation including the US. You will be easily bullied by the US govt with a tape over your mouth.
Or this is the story line that US politicians have bought and unpacked after being hand delivered by AIPAC with a brief case of money plus a set of blackmail love letters waiting to be leaked if they don’t take it.
I am convinced that our govt never had spine to stand up for freedom unless Israel/lobbyists were behind it. They quarrel amongst themselves because of Israel and agree in large numbers because of Israel.
mahirsaid
Most likely the very same people that passed it are part of the lobbying of you know who ( i don't want to say the exact names or party). Any future bills in favor of that foreign country will be hard to protest against. petitioning will be heavy criticized for being anti-semitic in nature firstly, which will delay any reverse action to a bill, such as a arms deal package or some aid in war effort such what's happening right now. another way to block none align congress vote or civil pushback.
ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7
Maybe because Israel is accused of committing blatant crimes against humanity at the moment, and you can't let that potential reality seep into the country. Or its just more anti-freedom (speech) moves by the current administration in an effort to control public perception.
Or who knows, maybe they ban Trump critics or commies from entering the US? I will definitely avoid travelling to the US due to the Trump Administration's hostility towards immigrants. These screening policies will probably remain in place under the next administration.
KingMob
There are more Jews in Israel than the US, but it's close. Roughly, 6mil to 7mil.
slg
There are also roughly 100 million Evangelical Christians in the US who are strongly in favor of political support of Israel too. It is a little silly to think the American position on this is exclusively about wooing the votes of 6 million people who will overwhelmingly vote for the Democrats anyway.
> There are more Jewish people in the US than Israel. I guess this is what they're securing against?
There are more chinese in the US than jews. So is DHS going to ban anyone who makes anti-china posts? We have a lot of arabs and palestinians. Why isn't DHS protecting them? Shouldn't DHS check every israeli's social media for anti-palestinian comments?
> Or who knows, maybe they ban Trump critics or commies from entering the US.
What does that have to do with israel and "antisemitism"?
petre
> Why isn't DHS protecting them?
I'm not sure the DHS is protecting anyone other than the Trump Administration's narratives at this point.
Israel is a defacto extension of the US. They're a part of us as much as Texas is.
account42
Just not bound by the US constitution when they spy on American citizens.
CommanderData
It's always been about Israel.
Everything from Tiktok bans to banning social media for teens. Who's going to fight US wars if your canon fodder witnessed Israel's inhumane behaviour as teens growing up. Nothing todo with China.
It's a national security threat alright.
barbazoo
> However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.
somenameforme
Of course when people's applications are rejected, exactly 0 reason will be given other than that they failed the screening process. So nuances like this are, in practice, irrelevant. When the obvious motivation is to eliminate criticism of the Israel, all they're going be looking for is criticism of the Israel.
Aeolun
I find it very hard to believe any current student would not be critical of Israel.
They haven’t exactly been model citizens these past few years.
krunck
It's easy for one to criticize Israel in a way that one does not criticize other countries because there are no countries acting like Israel is at the moment: Genocide, apartheid, unprovoked war, etc, etc.
Plus it acts this way with the blessing of so-called liberal democracies so that we must confront the absolute hypocrisy by voicing our criticism.
barbazoo
That doesn't prevent people from labelling you as an antisemite unfortunately. I'm not on social media but if I was, I wouldn't make negative statements about Israel if I actually cared about entering or staying in the US.
KingMob
...which is immediately followed by a bunch of counter-statements carving out exceptions.
barbazoo
Not really at least not most of them.
> Contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere could, taking into account the overall context, include, but are not limited to
One stands out though
> Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
That seems to be a perfectly fine thing to do, comparing one government's policies with another. Maybe instead of saying "Nazis", maybe one can say "Government of Nazi Germany" and one wouldn't be labelled as an antisemite.
keernan
>>You have more freedom to criticize the US Government than to criticize a foreign country.
I doubt that. I would honestly be shocked if anyone with anti-Trump posts would 'pass' DHS screening.
TimorousBestie
The IHRA definition of antisemitism is so vague that it includes otherwise innocuous and/or factual statements.
> “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
In IHRA’s defense, this definition was never intended for legal use. But here we are.
timr
They go on to discuss more than a page of examples, all of which sound completely reasonable to me. Or perhaps you could just quote the very next paragraph, which is pretty specific:
> Manifestations might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic. Antisemitism frequently charges Jews with conspiring to harm humanity, and it is often used to blame Jews for “why things go wrong.” It is expressed in speech, writing, visual forms and action, and employs sinister stereotypes and negative character traits.
somenameforme
A key issue in this is that the screening process is completely opaque. I have acquaintances who have tried to get visas to the US, and it usually takes several attempts - with nothing really changing in between. It mostly comes down to the exact immigration officer working somebody's application, and the waxing and waning of the moon.
The reasons given are extremely broad, so it makes nuances like this largely irrelevant. If an immigration officer perceives their duty (or maybe it's just their own personal opinion) to be to reject applications which are critical of Israel, then that's exactly what they're going to do. And you have no ability to appeal decisions, not that you'd even know what caused those decisions.
FWIW the people I'm referencing were also completely upstanding, educated individuals with high competence in English. It's a great way to make one loathe the double standard given to people who just illegally cross the border. Even moreso when you consider that each of these applications costs hundreds of dollars in places where that's often a rather substantial sum of money (just as it would be in most places in e.g. South America).
timr
Yeah, I’m not saying anything about the idea of screening someone based on the content of their thoughts (i.e. their social media feed). I’m only commenting about the purported unreasonableness of the definition of antisemitism.
There are obviously issues of subjectiveness here, but that’s also nothing new in the world of immigration. These decisions are made by humans, not robots (or at least, robots trained by humans).
TimorousBestie
“X might include Y”, “X frequently Z”, “X is often W”: these phrases do not legally define anything, they’re merely vibes. If I argue that a particular statement is neither Y, Z, or W, that doesn’t logically imply that it isn’t X.
If a censor is trying to determine if a particular post doesn’t contain antisemetic content, this paragraph is not helpful.
Well, they do state one negative criterion:
> However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.
I have never seen this principle successfully cited as an affirmative defense, however. They give examples that contradict this quote, so I don’t think we’re supposed to take it seriously.
KingMob
Many are reasonable, but several are not.
> Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
One does not entail the other. You can support our right to self-determination while not supporting Israel's apartheid-style policies, but this sentence conflates them.
> Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
This is pure whataboutism. Israel is actually given incredible leeway by America, and I usually see this trotted out to shut down legitimate criticism. There's a good discussion to be had about why we don't criticize China, or why we ignore atrocities in African countries, but none of that absolves Israel from its misdeeds.
> Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
Call it "sparkling ethnic cleansing" then. Ironically, actual genocide scholars have pointed out that when the Shoah is your metric, then almost nothing can compare, rendering the word useless.
This is dystopia in the making, 1984 coming alive, first of all; why someone's social media activity would be the matter of the government? Everybody in the world has freedom of speech, it is a human right. US will no longer be free if it peruses politically motivated persecution and segregation. This is political hysteria akin to anti-communist and anti-Japanese hysteria during WW2 and after.
And secondly why would US government target only anti-semits, will they check for anti-white racism, African-American racism, anti native-American racism, homophobia etc. This is a mess of a policy. And Trump is openly homophobic and anti-LGBTQ+, what that should tell us?
Abraham Lincoln said: "At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."
toast0
> This is dystopia in the making, 1984 coming alive, first of all; why someone's social media activity would be the matter of the government?
I don't know that it's specifically required for a visitor visa, but 'Good Moral Character' is required for naturalization in the US. Activity on social media is probably an indication of moral character, so it's not unreasonable to check social media before issuing visas that have a path towards citizenship. Student visas may technically be visitor visas, but there's a clear path F-1 -> OPT -> H-1B -> EB-2 or EB-3; if you're going to check on moral character at the end of all that, you may as well check at the beginning too.
What constitutes good moral character might not be a great question for a government to decide. There is certainly potential and precident of the government using good moral character as a proxy for discrimination that has nothing to do with morality.
iLoveOncall
> Everybody in the world has freedom of speech, it is a human right
This is absolutely not true.
There isn't a single country in the world with absolute freedom of speech to begin with. And even if we take the very permissive freedom of speech of the US, it is matched by only very few countries, even in the west.
The US doesn't even have free speech, as we can see from this event happening right now. Many European and European-style countries have weaker constitutional protections, but stronger actual protections in reality, than the USA. The USA's constitution significantly differs from the USA's reality.
ranger_danger
The US absolutely has free speech, please don't spread misinformation.
Couldn't be happier - I am the single person I know among my peers (college) who doesn't have social media (except HN). The reason is not some concern for privacy though, I have ADHD and can't handle having social media installed on my phone lol, I become dysfunctional pretty quick.
huevosabio
> Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.
> Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor
> Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
> Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
...
Many of the examples make sense, but these four above are absurd.
mrkramer
> Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
I draw comparisons to Roman Empire, would that please them better? Because Roman Empire also had racist expansionist state policies.
suddenlybananas
You can call the Roman Empire many things but to call them racist is very anachronistic
mrkramer
Romans called barbarians anyone who is not from the Roman Empire, I don't think Israel thinks any better of its Muslim neighbors. And Jews had pretty bad experience under the Roman Empire in then called Judaea and now Palestinians have pretty bad experience under Israel. Palestinians are Jews of the Islamic world as well as Kurds.
Genocide is human beings at their worst. Suppressing the condemnation of genocide means any speech can be suppressed.
dlubarov
How so? Double standards for the only Jewish state seems like a pretty clear example of antisemitism, at least.
(It's usually difficult to decisively prove that someone is applying a double standard, but I think here we're assuming that was somehow firmly established.)
huevosabio
On that one (and many of the Israel-related ones) I think the problem is that it implicitly assumes that because you do, you do it because of antisemitism.
But I could have double standards for all type of countries! I tend to hold the US at a higher standard than most countries for almost anything, and I think everyone holds Germany to a much higher standards with respect to minority rights (particularly, Jews) than other countries.
I think people overindex on Israel as "the only Jewish state", and less as "just another country". I wish we could entirely separate the identity of the Jewish people and the state of Israel at least in the discourse. It would make everything healthier.
birn559
All of the mentioned bullet points could be applied to other countries.
While I think there's quite a lot of antisemitism out there, I find it questionable trying to deduce antisemitism. Explicitly expressed antisemitism itself is something else. I also find it very questionable to redefine the term that it includes deductions.
dlubarov
If there's some universal principle underlying your treatment of the US, I wouldn't really call that a double standard, assuming the principle is based on things like economic or military capabilities and not race, national identity, etc.
jaoane
Why is criticism of the only Jewish state antisemitism but then whites can’t even think of having their own state?
cyanydeez
Its mostly strange because antisemitism is bad, but Holocaust denial, pronazi viewpoints are ok.
Just a bundle of mixed messages and doublethink to allow the right kind of hate.
georgeburdell
The criticism of Israel thing is not what you think it’s for.
lurk2
What do you think it is for?
georgeburdell
It’s Trump’s latest incarnation of a “Muslim ban”. As a side bonus, it also targets the Left
lurk2
I think that’s what most people thought it was for.
somenameforme
This is nonsense. At this point in time anybody who isn't of a very specific political persuasion is going to be criticizing Israel, including most Israelis!
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.
herbst
Talked to police guy once for something unrelated. The moment I mentioned I don't have a telephone number all alarm bells went off in this man and you could tell the police guy was suddenly suspicions.
BLKNSLVR
I have vague but genuine concerns about that. I legitimately don't have any social media accounts. Does HN count? Well, none that can be casually associated to the name on my passport.
GJim
> Does HN count?
Social media is where one shares ones social life (it's in the name!). Technical discussion forums are something entirely different.
Naturally, there is sometimes crossover (I'm thinking of a motorbike forum I frequent), but to suggest the likes of HN is social media is demonstrably false.
This is only the case today because it makes you an outlier.
When it’s common to have deleted your accounts due to widespread privacy impacts, it won’t be such a showstopper.
Be the change you wish to see in the world.
catlikesshrimp
Now that we are there, deleting social media presence for privacy concerns, you will need to keep a "Stub" account to access the parts of life that require social media accounts: marketplace, local groups, immigration.
jjulius
I killed my accounts with fire some time back and have yet to come across a single instance where I've felt that I've needed some kind of "stub" account. YMMV, however.
OrangeMusic
Simple solution: have 2 accounts, the real one and the public one, which only has like 3 posts in the last 10 years about the weather.
jajko
Not at all, many friends have at least tried to cancel FB account, even when those assholes are making it a very lengthy and painful process. We talk about doctors and surgeons here in their 30s and 40s, wife is a doctor who waits for second year to get her FB account deleted so these are our social circles.
Its sort of a mark of upper class (or just having a class) in more developed societies these days.
Sidenote - all folks here working for meta - shame on you. I get the greed part, but then you define what sort of human being you are and what your legacy is.
bigbacaloa(dead)
[dead]
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.)
Liquix
if having an instagram/tiktok/facebook/etc is a hard requirement for entering the country, we've truly reached peak clown world
emodendroket
Being unreasonable seems like half the point.
codedokode
If 99% have the account then rejecting the 1% seems like a good way to not let different weirdos (like me) enter the country?
And the irony is that this would reject only those who properly did the paperwork and won't stop the people who prefer different methods of entry.
emodendroket
Nobody is illegally entering the country and then beginning graduate studies at Harvard, so if you understand this as an attack on universities and an attempt to essentially “close” the country then it makes perfect sense. That JD Vance interview where he went on about “we didn’t need immigrants to get to the moon” is probably the clearest statement of their outlook.
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.
eddythompson80
Man, I'm sorry to tell you. But you must not have been around the world much.
JumpCrisscross
> you must not have been around the world much
Gay man here. Multi-ethnic, world travelled.
American evangelicals are up there with the mullahs in opposing both free society and everything Christ preached.
There are homophobic people all over the world, but the topic of discussion is people coming to the US on student visas.
bigbacaloa(dead)
[dead]
dullcrisp
I’m sure we can still deport them to El Salvador.
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.
andsoitis
> This is a bad argument for screening visa applicants for beliefs, and not what this new rule will be used for.
And do you think permanent residency or citizen applicants should be screened for their beliefs?
“Curate” away the 4k footage of children, doctors, refugee camps being bombed, aid blockades starving people? Must be nice to have your head in the sand like that. Quibble over the word genocide all you want - it is very clearly a genocide unfolding in front of us.
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.
dmoy
It might not be what the US is screening for, but if you're forced to make your account public, not just to the US, then your own government would also know.
thfuran
Yes, that's part of why it's a bad idea.
mahirsaid
They will most likely force FAANG to disclose this anyway. Some of which already have contracts with that country that is at war.
bastardoperator
This isn't a screening process, it's a deterrent.
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.
lurk2
> you can't put someone on trial for a crime they haven't committed.
What do you think happened in a trial where a not guilty verdict is reached?
Freedom2
> Here in America, you can't put someone on trial for a crime they haven't committed
Actually in the US you can - it's why there's stories of innocent men and women being released from jail after other evidence proves their innocence (eg: DNA).
bigyabai
That's exactly why they're being released, though. If you manufacture a bogus case or plant evidence against someone, that's not probable cause. You're not acting within the acceptable norms of a just society, and the rectification of these cases is proof. Oftentimes the falsely persecuted will countersue, especially if they get an early injunction.
chrz
These people spend years in prison before "correcting" that small mistake
recursive
If we know someone has committed the crime before the trial, we could really streamline the judicial process.
andsoitis
> > Should they be categorically denied entry to foreign countries for their stereotypical ignorance?
You missed this bit that parent said:
"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?"
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
BLKNSLVR
Well, to me, it sounds as if the ban on LGBT folks joining the armed forces is a kind of protection of LGBT folks, especially given the world seems to be moving towards an inevitable near-future in which US forces will be deployed to Canada, Greenland, Panama, Iran, Russia (to protect it from invasion by Ukraine and/or Europe), Gaza (to protect the construction of Trump's Oasis on the Mediterranean), Taiwan.
Non-LGBT front line.
derektank
Obviously not by this administration, but if we are creating new powers, the question of the principle is relevant and its potential use by a Democratic administration is also relevant.
I, personally, don't see a problem with creating an ideological test for certain kinds of visa holders or permanent residents. As Karl Popper noted in outlining the paradox of tolerance, unlimited tolerance can lead to the destruction of tolerance itself. I think it's worth exploring ways for the government to prevent enemies of liberalism from entering the country, even if we already face illiberalism at home.
That being said, I think this specific proposal threatens personal privacy far too much to be justified.
scarecrowbob
I dunno, I think it's not super great that I might not be able to pass an ideological test to get into my own damn country. Why do they get to say that what I believe isn't "American".
Like, I'm "Texas from Texas"- my anglo ancestors go back before the 1836 revolution.
But I'm not a racist so I have often been told that I'm "not really from Texas".
It's the same vibe here. I'm way more worried about the fact that they wouldn't let me back into the country if I had to pass an ideological litmus test than I am worried that someone with illiberal beliefs is going to join the other theocrats in Texas.
riffraff
Are you really advocating for 1984's thoughtpolice?
If someone has "bad" ideas and they keep them to themselves by having private social media accounts, it's crazy to think it's a risk to society.
Countries already have rules to deal with hate speech, inciting riots, etc.
TheOtherHobbes
To add some nuance to Popper's argument, the implication is that intolerance means violence against others.
People can believe whatever they like as long as they don't become a movement dedicated to murdering those they don't like.
Historically, observably, and objectively, the US right has much more of a history with political murder than the left does.
This isn't some ideological purity test about "liberalism". This is about maintaining a culture that supports a broad spectrum of views in a peaceful way.
When the state itself crosses that line the state itself becomes oppressive, and would-be residents should be asking themselves whether that's the kind of state they want to live in, or visit.
frollogaston
To answer your question, yes those people should be welcome, yes I'm ok with people coming from China and India.
octo888
My desire to visit the US just went sub zero.
The worst part is this has the possibility to spread to other countries (that the US can twist the arm of) because they want to extend their policies further.
xtracto
Right, just freaking stop going there. Americans have made it loud and clear (by voting with majority) that they don't like outsiders.
Stop going to the US. Is it pretty? There are way better places on earth. Is it fun? There are way funnier places ok earth. There's no reason to submit to all that degrading behavior.
Good riddance. Let the. Keep their decadent country to themselves until it crumbles.
soared
To be clear, at this point the majority of Americans do not support the current administration. So blaming it on the American government is more apt.
tempaccount420
If a little less than half the people on the street hated you, would you feel comfortable walking that street?
phire
The majority voted for this government... They don't get to wash their hands of it just because some people later changed their minds.
lcnPylGDnU4H9OF
Not even a majority of voters, let alone the whole population, voted for the current President.
overfeed
> To be clear, at this point the majority of Americans do not support the current administration
At the very least, the majority of Americans certainly condoned the current administration at the polling booth - or couch. The Trump campaign can't be accused of not being up-front with its agenda.
sbelskie
A plurality of those who voted, you mean.
overfeed
Choosing not to vote when you're eligible is a statement in itself - which why I referred to the couch.
bdcravens
While I feel like many across the world realize this, unfortunately it doesn't make them any safer while they're here. Moreover, the most extreme haters of outsiders feel empowered by the current regime, adding to the risk.
jampekka
Majority supports the immigration agenda though.
quantified
That's not clear. The problems and the agenda don't align. Majority definitely supports fixing the problems, but the political leadership clearly supports keeping things dysfunctional. Remember that the US Congress was ready to pass legislation to solve before the last election, and Trump made them stop it so he could campaign on the problems.
jampekka
About half support more raids and more ICE.
37% approve illegal deportations to El Salvador. Not a majority, but a shoking approval for literally illegal, both domestically and internationally, operations. General Trump disapproval is barely over 50%. These reflect a widespread rot in the culture, not just a rogue administration.
I'm Canadian. Before Trump, I made several trips a year to the USA. all my vacation money was spent there. Now I go to Europe every summer instead.
Meanwhile, I recently received a survey from some industry association in the USA asking what it would take for me to return to travelling in the USA. Like asking a bunch of questions about accommodations, travel, flights, etc. Without even mentioning the obvious.
Do Americans not know how they are perceived in the rest of the world?
quantified
As an American, I can only believe it because I know the dipshts that got elected. I wouldn't come here. This is all a real wtf.
Note that in the pre-social media era, this particular bs would not be possible.
idkfasayer(dead)
[dead]
msgodel
Yup. When we said there were problems 10-20 years ago it would have been good to have a nuanced discussion about immigration. Now we have this instead.
There are plenty of other countries to immigrate too, at this point many are probably better than the US. Stop bothering us and let us work our problems out.
quite-sfwd
Some countries don't even need the arm twist (eg Central/South America) they'd just copy the US out of inertia.
franczesko
USA is a beautiful place to visit and people are very hositable. I think that there's a big difference between what people do and what the state does. I do agree however, that what is happening in this country right now is deeply concerning.
jeroenhd
The same can be said about just about any country.
Based on the way Americans vote, I don't think that hospitality is there for the majority of Americans. I know the way the American system of politics has shifted to a binary choice doesn't leave much room for nuance when it comes to specific policies, but when Americans were faced with a choice between a racist, misogynist, fraudulent, insurrectionist sex offender and anyone else, they showed their values.
Plus, the country's leader announced he was considering invading a close ally, that kind of threat cannot be ignored either, though it's only one of the more recent threats to world peace that only happens to hit close to home for me. I'm sure people in the Middle East and Central or South America will have heard this kind of talk before.
In the same vein, I hope people judge my country for the fact that right extremists that have held a significant amount of power for years now. There are hospitable, kind people in every street in every town, but I won't pretend the average person will be like that; voter demographics have definitely been a continuous source of disappointment for me. Perhaps that's one of the downsides of democracy: the people of a country show their true colours quite publicly, and can't hide behind "that's just what the regime thinks".
You're right about the beauty, though. America is a very pretty place.
sofixa
> but when Americans were faced with a choice between a racist, misogynist, fraudulent, insurrectionist sex offender and anyone else, they showed their values.
Don't forget serial cheater with multiple divorces (supposedly the choice of the religious people of "family values"), blatantly corrupt out in public, borderline senile (seriously, listen to the guy speak for more than a minute, it's barely coherent), mocking disabled people, etc etc etc.
How that person is even seriously taken as a candidate, let alone actually winning anything, is genuinely beyond me. Especially for a second term after multiple convictions inbetween.
laurentiurad
shows the morale decline of the general population
quantified
Moral, I think you mean.
Being all "jesus christ is my savior" has nothing to do with actual morals, just power.
Morale has declined too, though.
jumpman_miya(dead)
[dead]
showsover
As can be said about Afganistan and its people. That doesn't mean it's not risky going there or that people are queueing to enter.
kashunstva
> I think that there's a big difference between what people do and what the state does
One of most famous speeches in U.S. history talks about a government that is “of the people, by the people, for the people.” If the State behaves in a certain way, it is of the people. Many people who cast their vote for the current regime are perfectly cordial in face-to-face interactions; but nonetheless they gave their consent to these policies. There is a deeply divided plurality, of course, but I’d rather limit my visits to the U.S. regardless of its natural beauties or the hospitality of its populace, be it real or superficial. Were I a student from outside the U.S., forget it, I would never consider it a safe option for post-secondary education. The absolute risk of serious harm, I imagine, is low; but who needs this humiliation?
beloch
Speaking as a Northern neighbour of the U.S., it rings hollow when we hear American state politicians telling us that they love Canadians and really hope we visit more (tourism is down) and go back to buying American (exports are down).
The American government is waging economic war on us with the openly announced intention of annexing us. American pundits (and the idiot ambassador Trump sent us) tell us to downplay it, but the president keeps bringing it up!
I'm still working to cut more American goods and companies out of my life. I'm sorry, but Americans are responsible for what their government does. If you wish to be forgiven, you must first stop doing what you say you're sorry for!
amanaplanacanal
I think most of us would like to get rid of our idiot president, but the only way to do it now is impeachment, which would require breaking the Republican majority in both houses of the legislature. It could possibly happen next year in the mid term elections, but it's going to be tough.
jumpman_miya(dead)
[dead]
acdha
> USA is a beautiful place to visit and people are very hospitable.
There’s a high degree of variability there based on location, your English fluency, and skin color. I know people who’ve had very different experiences based on that - it’s why my white European friends never think twice about going on a backwoods camping trip but some from Africa or South America stopped. Even if most people are nice, the ⅓ or so set the tone for the entire trip.
Vinnl
The point of GP's remark was not to condemn the people or the beauty of the place, but that they didn't want to expose themselves to these rules.
arunabha
> USA is a beautiful place to visit and people are very hositable
Yeah, the jury is still out on the second part of the claim.
ehnto
Whilst that is nice to know, these are real tangible barriers to entry. Both literally and by making it a far less attractive place to cross the border.
As a very run of the mill Australian, I would not feel safe crossing your border right now. The overreach, lack of transparency and documented instances of recent abuse put it at about the same risk as Russia or China. If border force is having a bad day, bad luck, you get fucked over with no recourse, no transparency. Too bad.
It is no surprise that tourism has plummeted.
tigrezno
North Koreans are also good people but I'm not visiting that country ever
jampekka
> The worst part is this has the possibility to spread to other countries (that the US can twist the arm of) because they want to extend their policies further.
UK is already almost as bad. But UKs political elite is maybe even more pro-Israel than USAs.
ascorbic
It really isn't. The UK government has strongly criticised the Israeli government's actions, and has applied sanctions to some far-right Israeli government ministers:
Performative and meaningless. The UK has been providing direct military support for the Gaza campaign for months now, long after it became obvious what the goals and methods were.
That's a statement made by the previous government
dontlaugh
There’s hardly a difference between the previous blue Tories and the current red Tories, particularly in Israel.
TheOtherHobbes
We lost a potentially transformative prime minister because of an insane media campaign that painted him as simultaneously wildly anti-semitic and a lackey of Putin - when the reality was that he was (still is...) popular with Jews in his local constituency, and had been protesting Russian atrocities as soon as they started, while the official story was that Putin was a potential ally who would be good for business.
It's been genuinely shocking to see how many EU leaders are in lock step over this. Only Spain and Ireland have broken ranks and called Gaza what it is.
sofixa
While I agree on Corbyn being wrongly painted as an antisemite, he is still a piece of shit Putin lackey.
August 2022, after the invasion of Ukraine, calling for "peace" by stopping shipments of armaments to Ukraine, saying they won't solve anything. The useless communist party of France has the same rhetoric, as do the far right loonies here. Because letting Ukraine fall to the Russians will definitely get peace.
Anyone with that sort of opinion is either incredibly dumb, or paid by the Kremlin.
jampekka
Well, how much have the shipments solved? Any peace agreement after these years of carnage will be a lot worse for Ukraine than was on the table in 2022.
Labeling those with different views on Ukraine-Russia policy as putinists is the same phenomenon as Israel critics being labeled antisemites or pro-Hamas.
sofixa
> Well, how much have the shipments solved? Any peace agreement after these years of carnage will be a lot worse for Ukraine than was on the table in 2022.
What peace deal was on the table for Ukraine in 2022? Surrender and let their population be brutalised by the Russians, their culture and language erased, their civilians and military tortured and raped? Great deal, I wonder why they didn't take it.
It has solved the immediate problem of limiting the Russian expanse and subsequently war crimes in Ukraine. It's literally the best that can be done right now, until Putin realises he can't win.
> Labeling those with different views on Ukraine-Russia policy as putinists is the same phenomenon as Israel critics being antisemites or pro-Palestine.
No, because both sides in the Israel/Palestine conflict both have good points and deficiencies. Both have a right to exist, and both have done terrible things to one another. There are nuances, and there can be a solution where both exist. But both need to take part of it.
In Ukraine, Russia is a genocidal regime invading its neighbour. Ukraine being forced to give up territory and concessions on army/NATO restrictions would just guarantee they'll be weaker for Russia to invade again in a few years. If you want peace, take it up with Putin. Preventing help getting to Ukraine to defend itself is serving Putin's interests and nothing more. The war stops the second Putin stops.
GJim(dead)
[flagged]
GJim
[flagged]
tomhow
Moderators hadn't touched or even seen your comment, but other community members were right to flag it.
Moderation of threads has been done the same way for years on HN. The guidelines have been in place and essentially the same for many years, and it's been the same people upholding them for a long time too.
Please read and observe the guidelines, particularly these ones:
Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.
Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.
When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."
Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.
Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.
Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes.
Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something.
Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. It tramples curiosity.
That is really sad, especially for people here, because the kind of people who dwell on HN are likely to specifically avoid creating much of a public profile on account of their increased knowledge and perception of these systems.
Time to go study in Europe, folks.
TZubiri
Not even a linkedin? Bluesky,A google maps thingy? Not even an FSF subscription and GNU social account?
You have the freedom to be off the grid, but the states have the freedom to reject your entry.
creata
I'm tired of hearing "you have the freedom to [x]", when it's always accompanied by "but if you do exercise that freedom, you will be treated as a second-class citizen".
Viliam1234
It's similar to the socialist: "we have freedom of speech, the only thing missing is freedom after you speak".
riedel
I think nobody is screaming here that this particular action is illegal, as I read the comments. However, there is many things governments can do, that can be considered (under different subjective considerations) unethical, following a hidden agenda or plainly stupid. My personal decision at the moment is that I do not travel to the US. Which means that at times our papers are not presented at US conferences because my PhD students don't get visa (even unrelated to the current ban). I think the US will survive this particular loss though.
grg0
That sounds terrible. Do you think the US can recover from this if these policies extend for the full 4-year presidential period?
sneak
The idea that countries have any right to restrict the movements of non-criminals is not settled.
If I own land, I should be able to invite anyone, anywhere to come stand on it. This idea that you have no right to freedom of movement and travel on Earth is a ridiculous one.
Passports as a concept are only about a hundred years old. Prior to that if you wanted to go somewhere, you just went.
TZubiri
>If I own land, I should be able to invite anyone, anywhere to come stand on it
Naturally there's conflicts between different rights, and yours end where other's begin.
In this case one should not be able to jeopardize the safety or well being of their neighbours by inviting
>Passports as a concept are only about a hundred years old. Prior to that if you wanted to go somewhere, you just went.
The base concept is significantly older. Even today, if you’re rich enough you can go anywhere; but serfs did not just leave.
Somehow, most people now treat “belonging to the land” as a positive concept.
intended
Strawman.
No one is saying states don’t have the right.
States can go even further. They can decide to exit economic unions, trade agreements, etc. You have sovereignty.
Everyone knows you have freedom to play cards as you see fit. Everyone who understands how the game is played, will also make moves accordingly.
There’s nothing to be defensive about.
TZubiri
Oh I might have misspoken, what I meant by "the states" was "The United States" rather than "the individual states". I think capitalizing it as "The States" or even "the States" should be sufficient to distinguish it correctly in the future.
On another topic, I think neither individuals nor the states, have sovereignity over the land, only The State has. But I may be mistaken.
grg0
I am actually an FSF associate member. What is your point, to alienate other FSF supporters or something?
TZubiri
No, I just meant that that would qualify as a social media account or as an alternative.
colinbartlett
Absolutely insane. Until recently, I had none. Now I at least have a LinkedIn account. My mother has no social media at all.
wombatpm
New business idea- AI powered burner profiles. Company starts building generic profiles that follow acceptable account, occasionally likes some or posts some lame LLM generated posts. Some point in the future company sells you access to the account.
aitchnyu
In India people are going around asking to buy Telegram accounts. Not exactly a centralized operation.
lanstin
And a self-hosted version where it can be fed some personalized info as basic prompt.
TZubiri
That's against ToS, you are on the wrong ethical side. This is the technology and behaviour patterns that fraudsters use, you would be indistinguishable from an enemy .
wombatpm
What’s the violation again? Automating account activity? Liking stupid cat pictures? Following mid tier influencers? Having vanilla posts?
I’m not engaging in click fraud or attempting to monetize an account illegally. And it’s certainly doing what anyone could do on their own. Or is everyone 100% honest on social media all of the time?
areyourllySorry
the very legally binding novel-sized tos? the tos they change as often as they like to benefit only them? nobody is ethical here - they abuse us, we abuse them
TZubiri
Yeah.Those rules protect websites from spam for example, and in the case of more serious sites like linkedin, fraud.
If you go deep into this route you'll end up using proxies to rotate ips, which are sometimes obtained through compromised devices.
One thing is the theory, but look into how this is done, robotic interfaces like with selenium, shady proxies, account markets, you get a feel of exactly what type of people use this. If you into forums there's a lot of third worlders that go as far as using or selling fakepassports to make LI accounts.
Alupis
So you have no HN account? No YouTube Account? No Reddit Account?
These are all forms of Social Media.
energywut
I create and delete HN accounts every... 80-200 karma. I don't have a youtube account. I don't have a reddit account.
Why is it so difficult to believe that there are people here who view social media as a harmful thing they try to mostly avoid?
ninjin
If the world is heading the way the US is heading, I may be inclined to start doing the same. This is the only "social media" account I have left, but if my freedom of expressing myself will be impaired by governmental stalking like this I will sadly have to "adapt". Losing my ability to help filter and manage by upvoting and flagging blows though.
ProllyInfamous
Become ungovernable...
This hn account is my only social media account.
I do not use apps, nor carry a cell phone.
If your parking requires an app, I am not paying.
Should the court require me to sign an affadavid stating I do not use email nor text messaging, so shall I attest.
> I create and delete HN accounts every... 80-200 karma. Why is it so difficult to believe that there are people here who view social media as a harmful thing they try to mostly avoid?
I don't know that "resetting my account" is the solution to "harmful and I want to avoid". I get why you're doing it in your mind (and there's validity to some parts), but to me "I see social media as harmful" means "I don't go on social media", not "I keep going on it, just with different credentials every so often".
I’ve been on HN since the beginning. I’m on my 12th or so username. Like you I don’t have a Reddit, Facebook, etc. account. Social Media is a plague on society.
Alupis
The OP comment in this thread has an account over 13 years old. That was the point when they said they didn't have any social media accounts.
TZubiri
I think at this point the onus is on you to provide some form of alternative. Can you provide to the officers at port of entry some proof of employment, or whatever?
If you are just going to blindly be indistinguishable from bad actors and do no effort in distinguishing yourself., then yea, don't travel to that country.
maeil
It's become very hard to tell whether this is sarcasm. I sure hope it is, though.
fc417fc802
Speaking for myself I have an HN account but why would I want those other two? And I certainly don't have any "social" accounts under my legal name.
I'm not even comfortable with ICANN based DNS given that the identity requirements amount to an impressum. That's fine for business dealings but interpersonal communications (including the metadata) should be private from outside observers.
GJim
Social media is where one shares ones social life (it's in the name!). Technical discussion forums are something entirely different.
Naturally, there is sometimes crossover (I'm thinking of a motorbike forum I frequent), but to suggest the likes of HN is social media is demonstrably false.
throwaway2037
This looks taken out of context. First, Economic Times is a shitty news source. The original was reported by Bloomberg, a much better news source. (What is their SEO dept doing to get ahead of Bloomberg in Google search results?)
> Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday ordered more scrutiny of the social-media profiles of any foreigners seeking to visit Harvard University, telling US consular officers that applicants’ lack of an online presence might be enough evidence to deny a visa.
This part is important: "any foreigners seeking to visit Harvard University"
Is Rubio's cable sent to US embassies worldwide public? It would be nice to see the full text.
Cipater
There is now a notice on each and every US Embassy website visa home page that says:
Effective immediately, all individuals applying for an F, M, or J nonimmigrant visa are requested to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media accounts to ‘public’ to facilitate vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the United States under U.S. law.
Pick any at random to verify.
throwaway2037
Hat tip: Great follow-up. I asked Google AI about those visa types and it told me:
> F, M, and J visas are all nonimmigrant visas for foreign nationals seeking to study or participate in exchange programs in the United States.
Tangent: US must have 5x the number of visa types compared to most other highly developed nations. Whenever there is a US visa discussion on HN, I always learn about a few more types! Plus they have all sorts of weird carve-outs for various nations: Looking at you Australia and Singapore.
gopkarthik
> What is their SEO dept doing to get ahead of Bloomberg in Google search results?
I thought ET/Hindustan Times etc showed up in Google Search results since I search from the region. But if they show up before Bloomberg/FT/WSJ etc for other regions too, then ET's SEO team is doing something terrific.
throwaway2037
It is ridiculous how good is Economic Times' SEO team! The crap they pump out reads like a ChatGPT summary from other major newspapers. Grumble...
checker659
What’s stopping someone from using LLMs to create a alt account? Imagine a bot that takes stuff from you actual a/c and posts the mirror opposite posts on the alt one.
JumpCrisscross
> What’s stopping someone from using LLMs to create an alt account?
For the applicant? Visa fraud rules. For people fucking with third parties? Absolutely nothing.
checker659
How would one prove fraud? I'm trying to understand the logic behind all of this.
sneak
Most large social networks now require biometric authentication of identity to prevent alts.
Even Uber requires facial biometrics for an account now if you try to sign up using a prepaid card and VPN.
koakuma-chan
Don't post pictures of yourself on the internet (and don't let your relatives do that), and you can say it wasn't you.
OrangeMusic
Simple solution: create a fake public Facebook account. Post something about the weather.
pwdisswordfishz
But a national ID card is literally Satan?
koakuma-chan
What? And which social medias am I required to have a profile on?
wombatpm
Truth Social
Havoc(dead)
[flagged]
koakuma-chan
> this is too insane to be reality
Is reality supposed to be less insane than this? Is this even insane in the first place?
This one isn't as bad as some other things that have already happened in the space, but I've been wondering...
If I was a non-US person, who previously wanted to visit or move the US -- as a student, industry engineer/scientist, academic researcher, teacher, doctor/nurse, investor/founder, conference attendee, or tourist -- recent news events would've already had me put that wish on hold, indefinitely.
Even though those all are people that the US wants coming, they are being discouraged.
So, who has the US already started missing out on, what are the situations of people who are still coming, and how soon will even they stop?
NalNezumi
Hey that's me! I was even willing to do long distance relationship with my partner for it and almost landed a job offer.
I wouldn't say indefinitely but it did indeed put a dent after that 2 German tourists being detained for a week. I even got a US flight ticket (for tourism) as a gift from my mom since I had told her I want to visit SV but that one got on hold too.
I don't consider myself exceptionally competent or talented so I'm not sure you're missing out on much tho. At least big companies, probably not much. Top of the top talents are probably not deterred and big companies probably have framework to mitigate the turbulence
zaptheimpaler
I’ve seen the tide beginning to shift among prospective students and some engineers, particularly those from India or China who could face 20+ year waits to get a green card even if they were sponsored. Doubly so with the big cuts in research funding. The last 10 years have shown how capricious the conditions for temporary immigrants are so it’s risky to be in that position unless you plan to go somewhere else after studies or have a clear and fast path to permanent residence/citizenship. As Canadians many of us have decided not to visit the US for tourism until things change. Realistically the US has a lot going for it so things will probably not change dramatically unless the administration continues to damage trust over a long time period and some compelling alternatives appear.
TriangleEdge
I recently migrated to the USA from Canada. I make 2x the income I made in Canada. My work is about the same as it was. I was also able to get competent medical care in the USA but in Canada I was on a waitlist for 2 years. I had to jump through a lot of hoops and the GC process was shitty, but my life is good here and I am glad I came.
I think economic freedom is a powerful motivator. Unlocking a social media account is hardly a deterrent.
intended
This is a great point to highlight how the current ability of America to produce outcomes like yours, is downstream of their ability to maintain institutional fitness.
These instructions are symptoms that show that the institutional fitness is degraded.
Good planning would be to come to America, take advantage of the increase in pay or opportunity, and several years later, leave once the inevitable co-morbidities become too much.
kamikaze56
Cool. As long as you dont care about LBGT persecution, children being forced to give birth and minorities being sent to El Salvador, enjoy your economic freedom. Seems like your values and what you look for in a society are a match with the current state of affairs in USA.
sabellito
I see this argument a lot. It works if you don't mind being surrounded by people in much, much worse condition than yours, for no reason other than policy cruelty.
overfeed
> I think economic freedom is a powerful motivator. Unlocking a social media account is hardly a deterrent.
Sounds like an amazing place if you're healthy and able to work, the two things that are not guaranteed day-to-day, and will inevitably decline with age.
> Unlocking a social media account is hardly a deterrent.
I'm always reading on HN that America is inherently destined to out-innovate China because of "Democracy" and "Free Speech" - but here we are, with first amendment rights being chilled[1] in blatant ways. I wonder how those HNers see the future of American innovation.
1. Historically, the American government has always been hands-off with the KKK and American Nazis because of their 1A rights. Rights that don't seem to extend to vocal brown university students criticizing a foreign government.
lowkey_
If you're ambitious and individualistic (as those who create the most economic value are), there's no alternative to the United States still.
If you're from a wealthy place like Europe or Canada: The United States is still far richer, bigger market, and more risk-encouraging than your homeland. Not everybody will want to move from those places, but I've seen first-hand how many ambitious people will. The ambitious culture and opportunity can't be overstated, and the ability to create a better life in a far more efficient country that rewards your efforts.
If you're from a poor place like Latin America: Almost anywhere in the United States is still better quality-of-life, better pay, etc., plenty of reasons to move.
From my sample size, the only people discouraged by this are political agitators who take up valuable spots at our universities, and contribute ~nothing to our economy anyways. Almost every immigrant I know supports these actions.
anal_reactor
Even before this whole shitshow I thought about moving to the US because 2x the salary compared to Europe, but jumping through the visa application hoops just isn't worth it.
fhd2
Funny thing about US salaries: Based on my limited reasearch, freelance rates and hourly rates for employees seem pretty close there. For employees, there's also no particular job security, sick leave, vacations in any guaranteed way, it comes down to the benevolence of the company.
In Europe, freelance rates differ from hourly employee pay by a factor of 2-3. As an employee, it's pretty difficult for a company (except small companies, which are exempt) to get rid of you, and the common approach is that they just offer you a relatively high severance payment.
So all things considered, I would think being an employee in the US is pretty similar to being a freelancer in Europe. Pay-wise and security wise. The major difference is that you have to find clients. Realistically multiple, due to "fake freelancing" regulations.
oaiey
It matters very much where you get hired. The silicon valley/Seattle area companies pay double or triple what you get on the countryside. And yeah, freelancing in the US is very different compared to Europe.
throwaway2037
> jumping through the visa application hoops
I have never before heard about this issue regarding US work visas. Isn't it normal for your employer to hire a visa consulting firm to handle all the work?
overfeed
I think your second sentence answers your first: if the visa process were straightforward, one wouldn't need to hire specialists.
throwaway2037
Are there any highly developed nations where job applicants submit their own visa applications? I never heard of it once in my career.
Right but that’s not an oversight. The fact that this puts the universities in bad straits is fine if you’re running an administration deliberately hostile to universities.
jeroenhd
It depends on where you're coming from. If you grew up in a poor country, or one run by cartels or drug lords of an oppressive regime, the worst parts of the US can be an improvement. The current political climate has been around for a decade now, news like this is nothing to be surprised about.
The availability of ridiculous amounts of investment cash is a good motivator. Startups start in America because American investors are willing to throw billions at the wall just to see if something will stick or not. Try that in Europe and you'll never get anywhere. The same also used to apply for scientific grants, and if you can find a corporate sponsor it probably still applies.
Higher wages are also a factor. More than one skilled programmer I know have considered working themselves "half to death" for a few years to build up wealth in the USA, and then returning home to comfortably spend that wealth.
Plus, despite everything else, the USA has some excellent facilities for higher education. If you want your kids to have opportunities in life and have the money to afford the ridiculously high fees, American educational facilities are very attractive.
Academics looking for the edge of innovation are well suited in many American institutions. News of cuts and changes to the US geographical service and weather service hit the world like a truck because those are areas that the US (and perhaps Russia) excels in, and everyone else has been catching up or cooperating with American programmes.
Don't forget: millions of people have moved to the US illegally, facing risk of deportation and long jail times, being separated from their families. Altering the privacy settings on their Facebook accounts is the least of their worries. Of course, illegal immigrants can't give a rat's ass about the legal requirements to enter the country anyway, but their sheer number shows how much so many people are willing to risk just to partake in US society, even if it's just for manual labour. Plus, that weird thing you guys do where people born within your borders automatically get citizenship is a nice way to ensure somewhat of a nice future for people looking to start a family.
As a tourist, though, things do seem to have shifted. The people coming to America to improve their lives will probably be a lot more persistent in following their dreams compared to the people coming in for leisure, especially when countries like Canada are just as far away. I myself have wanted to save up to see things like Disneyland and Cape Canaveral, but my plans have been on hold ever since the Trump election and I don't think I'll be reconsidering any time soon. From what I've heard in the news from travel agencies, I'm not alone, and my country is one of the more tolerant European countries when it comes to American bullshit.
TZubiri
Personally, no.
The stance of the US on illegal inmigration has always been clear, and the process for requesting a B1B2 visa is like a rite of entry where it is made even clearer (interviews, seriousness). My father explained it to me when I was young, I must have thought the process was a bit too harsh, "going to their country is like going to somebody else's home, you need to follow their rules, and it's a privilege not a right, to enter".
From what I read, the rules haven't changed, rather they are being enforced. My perspective as an outsider is that the people that complain are mostly leftist extremist from one of the most left leaning and inmigrant heavy states (CA).
I know a lot of people from my country that consider breaking rules and laws as part of natural life and they see visa rules as some other rule to be broken, lots of people that overstay visitor and business visas to work and live in the states or other countries.
I see these changes in enforcement as positive to me, as they do not restrict me in any way except in false positives, as I was already complying with the law and my visa terms. If anything, I am benefitted, as the benefits that are given to law abiding people are becoming exclusive to those that abide the law, instead of also those that disregard it.
> I see these changes in enforcement as positive to me, as they do not restrict me in any way except in false positives, as I was already complying with the law and my visa terms.
The bootlicker ethos thoroughly explained
neilv
I think I understand your point, but isn't calling this "bootlicker ethos" a bit strong?
I think TZubiri was speaking narrowly, of specific rules. And of their personal general law-abiding view, which one can respect.
I think they weren't speaking more broadly, of all the rules, conditions, and actions that currently apply to immigrants.
For example, I imagine they'd be surprised if, obeying all the rules, as far as they knew, they were suddenly grabbed off the street. Would they feel wronged? I don't think they're addressing that in the narrow comments here.
Regarding the part about thinking of themself as a guest, it's unclear at what point they have (in their view) earned additional rights -- by following rules, and contributing to US society -- and can start to think of it as their home, with additional rights and responsibilities, rather than as still only a guest.
Of course, if someone were framing an issue disingenuously, that might rate strong terms, but I'm trying to follow HN guidelines here, of trying to use the best interpretation of what someone said.
foogazi
> I think I understand your point, but isn't calling this "bootlicker ethos" a bit strong?
It is strong but I thought merited by Tzubiri’s glee at the imposition of more stringent immigration process
I’m also an immigrant and was able to follow through the long process to immigrate to the US
I quote from Tzubiri gp comment:
> The stance of the US on illegal inmigration has always been clear
Obviously not true - as proven by the fact that millions of illegals immigrants are currently employed in the US, pay taxes, can buy homes, have drivers licenses
> From what I read, the rules haven't changed, rather they are being enforced. My perspective as an outsider is that the people that complain are mostly leftist extremist from one of the most left leaning and inmigrant heavy states (CA).
Even president Trump acknowledged the dependence of US businesses on illegal immigrant labor when calling of ICE raids on farms. The most anti-California president elected not to enforce the rules they swore to follow.
> I see these changes in enforcement as positive to me, as they do not restrict me in any way except in false positives, as I was already complying with the law and my visa terms.
The US visa system makes people jump through arbitrary hoops just to stem the flow of foreigners.
Immigrants that follow the rules then come to believe that instead the system accurately measures worthiness
Why are EB3 wait times for India 10+ years but other countries 2 years?
Why did the US cancel the visas of Haiti and Venezuelan workers thus turning them into illegal immigrants overnight
Why were Cuban immigrants granted special status ?
Why are Cubans banned from US visas ?
The bootlicker is because
Tzubiri could do everything by the book and still have their country be banned - they don’t know how additional enforcement will affect them or their loved one’s
sofixa
> I see these changes in enforcement as positive to me, as they do not restrict me in any way except in false positives
And false positives based on random things such as tattoos resulting in getting shipped to a concentration camp, with no due process, are positive to you?
neilv
(I appreciate you sharing your perspective, and I'll assume it's sincere, and I don't know why you were downvoted.)
I think that's a nice Mad Men scene in some ways. But we can agree that the writer used weak, stoned, strawman hippie characters for dramatic effect, so that Don Draper could be cool and reinforce the character. The closing line was especially smooth, and fit (and burned).
That scene expresses how you feel, and that's one entertaining way to communicate it, and that's fine.
But I hope we all agree that the scene doesn't constitute competent debate of the merits of feeling that way?
felineflock
I will spend this weekend creating burner social media accounts for my kids as a precaution. Each one will be crafted to look like they've never had a controversial thought in their lives.
Just lasagna pics, birthday cakes, kittens, golden retrievers, baby goats, maybe an artsy photo of a leaf with #blessed.
Everything I can do so that an AI running immigration background checks might match my kids to the profile of a low threat, emotionally well-regulated, consumer-minded citizen material.
Absolutely no pictures of Winnie the Pooh to keep China travel option open too.
I welcome any tips. Someone here must have cracked the code to be completely unremarkable and "wholesome" to governments.
DigitallyFidget
My only tip isn't really useful. Just avoid going to that hostile country for now. Unless there's a specific necessity. And if that's the case, then change all your social media accounts info, change the name, change birthdates, missmatch as much info as possible. Delete photos of yourself/family. Then for 'burner' accounts, make them on a different social network, like bluesky, myspace (they're still around), and then use an AI to generate ideas for posts and just make those as posts for the next while. The problem will be making a realistic timeline/history for new accounts. Alternatively "your kids aren't allowed to use social media", and that clears up a lot of work. But honestly just avoid the risk of traveling there in the first place, is it worth the risk of being detained?
somenameforme
PRISM [1] says hello. He may have fallen out of the news cycle, but he's not only still around but bigger, badder, and more invasive than ever. That phone you used to set up 2FA online with? Well that conveniently ties your real name, address, and more right to specific accounts. And he's collected it and passed it along for storage, in perpetuity.
> I welcome any tips. Someone here must have cracked the code to be completely unremarkable and "wholesome" to governments.
Don't go to the US. That's the tip.
seanmcdirmid
I've been to China a lot while also being critical of it sometimes on Facebook, and have never been refused a visa, even a work Z visa. Either they aren't looking or can't look because Facebook is blocked in China. My guess is simply that they aren't looking.
lucubratory
They generally only look on Weibo & other Chinese-exclusive social media, and they do it all the time, not just while you're in customs. For something on Twitter, Reddit, Facebook etc it would need to be something really, really egregious (and you would know about it) like organising or raising funds for the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, or something similar. It wouldn't be enough to just express a political opinion that the US State Department has expressed, like "China is committing a genocide of the Uyghurs". Maybe if you're saying it in Chinese it's more likely that would lead to issues because that's what they're used to dealing with, but I think it's unlikely. They care about what their nationals are doing, and they care about what's happening on their own social media networks; that's mostly it.
My general advice for people travelling to China is to not talk about politics on Chinese social media, or if you do just talk about the domestic politics of your home country & keep in mind that Chinese people might disagree with you. That's also my advice for people travelling to any country, but it's more important in China.
All that said, if you must discuss politics on Chinese social media while you're there, the thing the censors really have an issue with is calls for action, explicit or implied. More than one very pro-PRC heritage speaker who went to China has had their Weibo posts raging against America or Japan censored because they thought the criteria were "Posts have to be pro-China", when really the criteria is "Posts can't be a call to collective action that wasn't started by the party". What the party is actually concerned about is just stopping any sort of organised mass movement that they didn't start. The CCP's point of view is that mass movements are inherently unpredictable & could lead to civil disorder (even if they're nominally "pro-China"), so they're too risky a tool to let anyone other than the state use - important context to that is that Chinese culture, similar to some other East Asian cultures, puts way more value than we do on civil order, harmony etc.
Also if your posts do get censored, it's not as big an issue as it would be here. Where I live, the government deleting my social media posts would feel approximately as serious as armed police rappelling through my windows, and if the former happened I'd at least think about the possibility of the latter happening shortly afterwards. Think something like the Christchurch shooting live feed. It's not like that in China; it's completely normal, for example, that you get angry & post something that gets deleted by a censor, & that is literally the last you ever hear of it, a lot like tweeting something against ToS. If you continue posting about it or try to get around the censorship, eventually a police officer will visit you and talk to you over tea about why you have to stop doing that, and if you keep going that's when the actual legal consequences like deportations or arrest start.
throwaway290
> It wouldn't be enough to just express a political opinion that the US State Department has expressed, like "China is committing a genocide of the Uyghurs". Maybe if you're saying it in Chinese
In 2025 if you are a public person saying it you will get consequences. See Hobhouse case.
There are other people like John Cena apologizing for saying something "wrong" in English but no idea if they were threatened by CCP or by their managers
lucubratory
>In 2025 if you are a public person saying it you will get consequences. See Hobhouse case.
Yes, if your criticism of China is in the news they might not let you in. That doesn't apply to many people but it's still a helpful clarification.
>There are other people like John Cena apologizing for saying something "wrong" in English but no idea if they were threatened by CCP or by their managers
Managers, and the reason isn't out of fear of legal consequences but fear of boycotts. Chinese have often felt like those in the West are talking down to them or being condescending, and they've never in their life had the ability to affect those doing so. Now that people really want access to the Chinese market, it's the first time ever for many Chinese people that they feel they can have any impact on how Westerners talk about China or the Chinese people. As a result (and because China has domestic equivalents of everything), Chinese people can be very boycott happy. The government can stop Chinese people from organising boycotts & very often does so (once again, they have an issue with any sort of mass organising by default), but the government can't force people to buy tickets to John Cena's movies & they didn't view it as appropriate to censor the videos of him screwing up what he meant to say. An organic boycott by the Chinese market is the worst nightmare of a lot of businessmen because the future of their business relies on selling in China, so they'll be even more strict on their people than the Chinese government would to try to avoid that.
tenpies
What method are you using to predict what future governments won't find offensive/illegal?
Short of time travel, this seems impossible.
decimalenough
This. I have a watermelon costume purchased years ago for a fruit themed costume party, but today it's code for supporting Palestinians/Gaza and a picture of me wearing it might get me banned from entering the US.
qiine
hopefully with enough time everything will be code for something and therefore nothing will.
felineflock
Yes, it is not possible. We can't predict but can follow the trends.
Governments tend to want to be seen as a god-like entity protector/judge of all.
So they hate satire or anything that means they're not being taken seriously.
Just recently Brazil decided to jail a comedian, for instance.
frollogaston
There's no need. Just make some accounts, upload a pic, leave it alone. The only purpose of that is to avoid any extra restrictions they may later place on new accounts. Like, I have 10 Gmail accounts from before they wanted a phone number, plus a few burner Facebooks. I made one new Gmail recently, and it was banned without explanation.
Marsymars
> Like, I have 10 Gmail accounts from before they wanted a phone number
I do too, but they won’t let me log in without putting in a phone number.
kortilla
Bo produced a guide to this called “white womans instagram”.
> Just lasagna pics, birthday cakes, kittens, golden retrievers, baby goats, maybe an artsy photo of a leaf with #blessed.
Now you have to hope that 20 years later people on social networks won't suddenly decide that "golden retrievers" is a dog whistle for something bad, which would make your accounts retroactively problematic.
pwdisswordfishz
Sorry, that'll just get them flagged for mustard stains.
DHS, ICE, ... all doing whatever they are told from the new "above the law".
SuperNinKenDo
Free speech for me but not for thee.
America holds immense leverage when it comes to education, and now it seeks to use that leverage to export control of people's speech, thoughts, and movements abroad.
At least when China does this kinda thing there's not so strong a stench of hypocrisy.
olalonde
Even China doesn't do this. I've crossed the border hundreds of times and was never asked to hand over electronic devices - in fact, they barely asked any questions at all. In contrast, my few experiences crossing the U.S. and Canadian borders were much more invasive (I'm Canadian).
forgotoldacc
Yeah. They basically just ask if you're a journalist when applying for a visa there, and if you're not, they don't care. You're basically auto-approved so long as you pay the fee.
I shittalked the government for a long time and got caught up in the various memes against the country before I decided to visit. I was afraid I'd be rejected (or worse, approved and arrested) and upon googling for similar experiences saw countless people freaking out about the same thing before going there.
Turns out they either don't check at all, or do check but aren't nearly as stringent as the US.
This ignores edge cases of popular Youtubers who lived there for years, made a career out of complaining, then were surprised when the government asked them to leave. Which still beats an El Salvador prison.
hollerith
Winston Sterzel, who is probably one of the "edge cases of popular Youtubers who lived there for years" you refer to, has a deep love for China and the Chinese people. He does not say that much, but I think I can see it in his videos, e.g., of daily life on the Chinese street.
He learned the language, bought a house there, got married, and did not want to leave.
forgotoldacc
And his videos are also the most transparently fake to a hilarious degree. He found a way to make money with fake outrage and ran with it.
fouc
he didn't really start heavily pushing the outrage angle until after he had left China though?
Hnrobert42
Possibly because they don't need to ask.
SuperNinKenDo
I am from Australia where China has flexed its trade leverage on a pretty much yearly basis against us as a collective, and has often tried to use our University systems supposed reliance on Chinese students to try and affect discourse in our Universities.
But even then, China doesn't stoop to the pathetic level of expending thus kind of soft-power on defending some third power that has managed to get it by the balls.
hearsathought
> At least when China does this kinda thing there's not so strong a stench of hypocrisy.
This kind of thing? When has china demanded access to foreigners' social media accounts so that they can check for anti-israel comments? Never. You think china cares what people say about foreign countries? You think china will block someone from their country because they criticized the US? Of course not. They ban you for criticizing their own country.
You are not appreciating the level of pathetic debasement we are experiencing. We are not checking for anti-american comments from foreigners. We are checking for anti-israel comments. The US government is acting like a guard dog for israel.
kavouras
A Greek friend of mine who applied for a visa to do a PhD in US about a month ago, was required to unlock their social media profile by the US embassy, this is already happening.
dlivingston
What does 'unlocking' a social media profile mean, specifically? Making your Facebook / Instagram public?
FirmwareBurner
Whenever getting a US visa you were also getting your palm fingerprinted, also at the entry in the airport.
Weird that people somehow are making more fuss about showing your social media to authorities than giving away your biometrics.
kavouras
Of course its worth making a fuss about it. My social media are private because what's getting shared in it is for close friends and family only. The US government has no right searching through it. This is a big joke and I'm afraid it's only the beginning. Personally, with how things are going, I don't think I'm pursuing a PhD in the US after graduating. What's next, sharing a backup of my private conversations?
I'm afraid we're going into a weird timeline where authoritarian figures in power(not just government) are having immense amounts of data for people, and the technology to go through it without much effort. It's a good time(if it's not to late) for everyone who cares about their privacy to start getting as much as possible outside mainstream social media and centralized accounts(google etc)
qiine
problem is not being on social media is becoming more and more suspicious in and of itself sadly.
FirmwareBurner
I can fake, change or delete my social media. I can't fake, change or delete my biometrics. So it's crazy to me to see people focusing on the least worst violations of their privacy like the government seeing their vacation photos.
>The US government has no right searching through it.
Well they just made it a right. What are rights anyway? Rights are not a natural construct, they're whatever the government decides. So if the government decides one thing, tomorrow it can decide another thing if it wants to.
It's not a US issue, every country you will go to can change their rights willy nilly based on the current boogie man: terrorists, COVID, Russia, Iran, right wing "extremists" etc
In the UK or Germany you can be fined, swatted or arrested for tweets and wrong think. Why? Because government made that a right.
kavouras
I'm not sure what your argument is. I'm not trying to talk about the semantics of the word right. Yeah every human rule is a social construct, I'm just saying this is bad, and it's only the beginning.
I'm guessing you're a US citizen, because this isn't about the US. Many countries in the world are more or less puppies of the US government, it's not like we're living in an isolated world where the decisions of the US government don't apply to others because they're not US citizens. This is showing a general trend, which doesn't concern just visa applications.
Does anyone think this is about anything other than stamping out criticism of Israel?
Arubis
Of course it’s for more than that. It’s a fabulously oppressive tool that’ll get used for whatever the hell power-hungry folks want. That’s not to say it won’t be used for your proposed purpose! Just gotta think bigger.
mattnewton
That’s the trial balloon.
te_chris
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IHRA_definition_of_antisemitis... Assume the IHRA definition of antisemitism has been the justification of all this - a reasonable document, and then a bunch of clauses explicitly to prevent criticism of Israel. Written before they started ethnic cleansing Gaza.
irrational
I don’t use social media. Is the assumption that everyone does use social media?
lurk2
You’ve been posting here for nearly 10 years.
Biganon
Forums are not "social media", this gotcha needs to stop. They've existed for longer than the web itself, we're pseudonymous, we hardly share anything about our private life, this has nothing to do with the commonly accepted definition of "social media" unless we're being overly pedantic for the sake of it.
tim333
Wikipedia has HN as "a social news website" and its close cousin Reddit as a "social news and social media platform".
Biganon
Then I guess I disagree with Wikipedia...?
What is social about what we're doing here ? I haven't even read your username, I dont care about it, I won't remember you tomorrow, there's nothing social about that, or else we should consider that every single BBS ever was "social" and the word doesn't mean shit anymore
lurk2
> we’re pseudonymous
Reddit and 4chan are different from Facebook and Instagram, but they are still social media.
Wikipedia:
> Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the creation, sharing and aggregation of content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongst virtual communities and networks.
The categorization you’re relying on dates back to the early 2010s; it equates social media with Facebook-style platforms centered on a main feed, profiles, connections, messaging, and other ancillary functionality. This was 15 years ago; YouTube doesn’t have a messaging system anymore, but you would probably still consider it to be social media. Most of the reels you see on Instagram are not from accounts that you follow, and hardly anyone uses their real name to post there, so by your definition it would not qualify as social media, but it plainly is.
I’m familiar with the attitude because I see it all over on 4chan, Reddit, and Hacker News. Someone who posts here claiming they don’t use social media is like someone claiming to be a vegan who eats beef; it’s a clout thing among the strange anti-social subcultures that developed on these platforms used to indicate that the user doesn’t use platforms that involve something as shallow as talking about his personal life.
Karrot_Kream
I think the worst thing about this attitude that sites like HN aren't social media is that it lets users feel superior just for using these sites even if they engage in the same low quality behaviors found on other social media.
"Sure I exaggerated the privacy risk and hyperbolized my experience but it's because I'm passionate about privacy! I'm not like those losers on Facebook spreading fake news."
They're doing the exact same thing. Pseudonymous and anonymous social networks are also social networks and suffer from the same problems of discourse. The smug "we're not like the normies" attitude often makes this even worse than mainstream social networks, not better.
lurk2
Smugness is definitely a problem on Reddit, but I think in the case of Hacker News you’re often dealing with older guys who grew up on either traditional forums or BBS. When you try to tell them that what they are doing is also social media, they reject it because they associate it with the networks that emerged from around 2005 to 2010, which they perceive as vapid owing to the emphasis on image over text.
I’ve always got the sense that this perception was a big reason why Redditors seem to hate Instagram so much. The algorithm does occasionally do some unpleasant things, but 90% of the time it’s great. When I read about people comparing their lives to others and becoming depressed I can’t help but feel like the app might not be the problem.
mahkeiro
But HN is not a social media, you don’t publish and are not linked to anyone (I cannot subscribe to your comment) on this site. Your definition of social media is almost equivalent of the internet.
lurk2
I know I’m being pedantic here but take a look at Wikipedia:
> Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the creation, sharing and aggregation of content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongst virtual communities and networks.
Forums satisfy all of these requirements. The key factor is not what kind of content users can post but that users can post, and more importantly that they post with the primary intention of interacting with other users. This covers Hacker News and other forums but excludes guest books and contact forms.
navane
Is minecraft a social medium? Are "stick finger here" messages in dark souls social media? They also fall under your "definition".
The key factor is that a third party has an algorithm that decides what you gets on your feed, based on the content. This is used to feed you ads or occasionally steer the election of the most powerful democracy.
lurk2
Minecraft might qualify per this definition but that really comes down to whether you’re considering the game as a form of “content.” (e.g. FPS games would typically not qualify because they aren’t primarily intended to be a medium of expression even though most of them include a chat option).
> The key factor is that a third party has an algorithm that decides what you gets on your feed, based on the content.
You are describing Hacker News.
grep_name
Eh. Your argument keeps coming back to that same snippet from Wikipedia, which is unconvincing. Wikipedia isn't the end-all-be-all arbiter of language. "Social media" is a useful term for discussing a lot of specific phenomena that have come out of sites like facebook, instagram, twitter, etc which all rely on metrics of social graphing to track popularity and guide content exposure and interaction. (Due to the nature of your argument I feel compelled to say that I'm not trying to formalize a complete airtight definition here)
There is a distinct experience and ecosystem that arises from those types of sites that we all recognize, which didn't exist in the same way before the advent of social media sites. And it warrants discussion. When you try to say "actually, technically, ALL human communication is social media!" and won't let it go, you derail a conversation in a way that benefits nobody and is functionally (if not literally at this point) untrue for anyone who's experienced the internet over the last 20 years.
I think Wikipedia is wrong. It’s not like Wikipedia is the arbiter of absolute truth.
tekla
HN is social media
irrational
I don’t consider an anonymous link aggregator with a forum bolted on top to be social media. To the best of my knowledge I’ve never read a comment from the same person (assuming they are people and not bots) in more than one post. Strangers passing in a pitch black room a single time is hardly social.
lurk2
> I don’t consider an anonymous link aggregator with a forum bolted on top to be social media
You are describing Reddit.
irrational
I don’t consider Reddit to be social either.
tempodox
The bureaucrats deciding on your visa just want sources for doing a colonoscopy on your opinions. If they say HN is social media, what are you going to do?
mitthrowaway2
I'll tell them my HN comments are all set to "public"
userbinator
I have no social media associated with my real identity.
That should've always been the norm, yet unfortunately it isn't.
tim333
>... required to unlock their social media profiles ... Those who fail to do so will be suspected of hiding that activity from US officials.
southernplaces7
So, aside from the first Amendment no longer applying to anyone in the U.S (not just citizens mind you) as has always been its interpretation, the government has given itself the right to explicitly, wholesale, normalize the total invasion of anyone's private "papers" (translate that to the modern era) in the name of bullshit entry security theater.
godelski
Just an FYI for anyone reading, according to the constitution, the first amendment applies to everyone, not just citizens. It specifically says "the people" rather than "citizens". Courts have ruled time and time again that citizen rights are specifically those with the verbiage "citizens" and rights like these apply to everyone.
Not that that exactly matters to this administration, who is happy to act first and let the courts figure it out never
Aloisius
Everyone inside the United States.
Non-resident aliens abroad aren't generally considered to be protected by the First Amendment, so denying someone a visa before they enter the US based on speech may be Constitutionally ok.
Deporting people already in the US because of speech is a different matter.
godelski
> so denying someone a visa before they enter the US based on speech may be Constitutionally ok.
It probably applies outside. Pay careful attention to the text
| Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
It does not say anything about when, where, or who utters speech. It only says that congress shall pass no law prohibiting it. It's highly debatable, but honestly speaking, let's be real, this right has no borders. Even if we look back to the intent, it is clear. We should ensure that it does not gain borders, because that will not be good for anyone, including citizens.
If you look at "the people" elsewhere in the Constitution, it refers to "the people of the United States" which would not include aliens abroad.
The Supreme Court hasn't said much, but in United States v. Verdugo-Urquidez plurality opinion by Rehnquist held that the rights of "the people" protected by the Fourth Amendment (written similarly) does not extend outside the United States to aliens abroad as they are not a "class of persons who are part of a national community or ... have otherwise developed sufficient connection with this country to be considered part of that community."
Just to add to that: the same logic is supposed to apply to the fourth amendment too since it also doesn't specify citizens. It's of course also being violated wholesale here (and has been for a long time, since before the Trump Administration). While that particular ship has sailed since long ago, it's worrisome and sad to now see the same prying and winnowing down being applied to the 1st too, which has probably been the best defended of the 10 main amendments.
This is how normalization of deviance works on a bureaucratic administrative legal scale. One administration, with just a mildly lackadaisical attitude about staying within the bounds of things like rights, laws, legality and so forth, stretches what's legally allowed or normal just a bit, here and there, only to be followed by another more or less reasonable administration that does it a bit more. Then however, you might get a less common but not extremely rare administration that simply doesn't give a tin shit about anything resembling legality insofar as it thinks it can get away with it, and all those previous deviations are aggressively pried into and expanded as much as possible.
This is why it's important to fight deviations of respect for individual legal rights and constitutional boundaries even when they're small, committed by administrations you otherwise largely respect. You simply don't know who will come along later, or how much political tendencies will change over time having been already given ever more free rein to do so illegally.
Then on the other hand, there is also that large subset of the population that, as long as a particular administration shares its ideological fixations, simply doesn't care about legality or deviations from constitutional responsibility.
On the contrary, they'll actively bark for their new leaders to break the rules as much as possible against anything they don't like. They're idiots for doing this of course, because it can very easily bite them right back in the ass later, but try explaining that when rational discourse goes down the drain in favor of dogmas.
LightHugger
This is pretty stupid, especially this will affect the smarter people who don't even make social media profiles to begin with! They'll get accused of lying for not having one, but they're really just smart enough to stay off facebook and twitter..
This is a gross violation of some of our most sacred principles.
throwawayq3423
Yep, and all by the "free speech" crowd.
belorn
The only crowd that is consistently in favor of free speech and privacy is the opposition. As soon there is a new crowd in power people change tune and then it is about freedom of speech but not freedom from consequences of speech. Over time people in power may use different criteria when speech should be punished, and by whom, but the differences are only in the fine details. No one in power has ever supported free speech (in modern time) if that free speech may harm their position of power or their voters interests.
decremental(dead)
[dead]
buckle8017
Can you be specific which principles this violates?
Historically visas could and were denied for completely arbitrary reasons.
JumpCrisscross
> Can you be specific which principles this violates?
The right to free speech. Even in its restrictive First Amendment form.
lesuorac
I'm not sure 1FA applies to non-US individuals on non-US soil.
Once they're in the country, sure.
----
Not that I think it's been demonstrated that this policy will improve US security or etc. Wonder if the APA applies here.
lucyjojo
there is a giant split between people.
some people only consider their in-groups as worthy of having rights.
others consider all human beings as worthy of having rights.
you see that schism in play everyday almost everywhere. i fear it is not a resolvable tension (without some kind of mass severe brainwashing). it is a core beliefs kind of thing.
The First Amendment indeed doesn’t apply to non-US individuals abroad, as much as I wish it were otherwise (and many other countries do take a more inclusive approach on such matters).
But the First Amendment does apply to the many US citizens and permanent residents who are being indirectly surveilled, profiled, and chilled in their speech as a result of the extra scrutiny of the foreign visa applicants with whom they interact and connect on social media.
JumpCrisscross
> not sure 1FA applies to non-US individuals on non-US soil
Textually, it does. (The President acts without force of law when he restricts “freedom of expression.”)
Intent-wise, for those seeking entry to America, it does—our republic was formed, in part, to restrict the executive from excluding religious minorities he doesn’t liked
Legally, however, you are right.
dlivingston
> Legally, however, you are right.
Is this true? My understanding is that the 1A has been understood by SCOTUS as a restriction on government power to influence speech, _not_ as a right granted to individuals.
intended
This is moving the goal posts.
You can point out that the constitution is for Americans only etc. etc.
The thing is, that the right to free speech, as defended by court cases and by precedence, is about the market place of ideas being functional, and allowing society to figure out what it considers “true”.
This is the spirit of the clause, and the purpose behind the freedoms Americans enjoy and used to uphold.
The reading that it applies “only to American citizens, and visitors on US soil”, is an after the fact reinterpretation to win arguments online.
Free speech in America has always been about the government not being able to decide what can and can’t be said, especially when it comes down to deciding which nations can and can’t be spoken about.
Your argument, can only be built on the ruins of the American free speech experiment. Because it accepts the death of the spirit of the idea, the a marketplace of ideas as a way to address the unknowns of reality, with a centralized, and enforced way of safe topics.
For what its worth, you only reach this level of banana republic, after your information and idea markets are compromised or overwhelmed.
I’m simply pointing out that your argument on procedural merits, takes the spirit of the law to the back of the shed, and shoots it.
leokennis
I am curious from someone in the higher education field. Is the quality of American universities still enough to offset their fascist government? More concrete, do you expect that smart people abroad will still choose to study in the US despite these insane policies? Or do you expect they'll divert to universities in other countries?
getcrunk
Im not an academic but went to fairly prestigious science university (not ivy league or MIT or something like top top tier). I don’t have any experiences to compare it to because I didn’t go to school in other countries.
But haven been through the system and being an American my whole life and understanding America, I would say no I didn’t see anything special about my education.
nothing particularly note worthy and in fact, I have a long list of criticisms. especially tenured professors, professors that don’t speak English very well, and then actually just horrible professors.
Curriculum wise, yes many universities can have fairly cutting edge curriculums but that’s not something we have a monopoly over.
And let’s not talk about the price.
Also, I had quite a few foreign exchange students that I’ve interacted with through throughout the years, whether at school or other places. And more often than not in the cs majors, I would say that they were ahead.
arunabha
I'm wondering how the officials are planning to verify which social media accounts an applicant holds. Apparently the idea of creating a 'clean' account for inspection is novel to them.
Also, pleasantly surprised to see this not immediately flagged off the front page. Of late, the flagging has been particularly trigger happy.
Well that's one way to end run around searches you're not legally allowed to perform.
tempodox
I wasn't aware that this administration gives a shit about legality.
Edit: Even if it weren't for that, non-citizens do not have any rights and are not protected by the constitution or anything else.
tianqi
In this situation, in accordance with the Fifth Amendment, all social media platforms should and must display a prominent warning: You have the right to remain silent on this website. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.
nlitened
Might as well tattoo that on newborns' forearms, but will it help?
jeroenhd
I'm pretty sure an empty social media account is more suspicious than no social media at all. Remaining silent may not be your best option.
Also, as a foreigner, it doesn't really matter what rights you may or may not have when people at the border have broad power to reject your attempted entry. Unless you're willing to try a legal battle, you'll be forever marked as "refused entry" in the US government systems, which is one of the many flags you need to clear to even get a VISA. I wouldn't trust the country that deports legal immigrants or just plain citizens without due process to care much about your right to remain silent.
I think it's been pretty well-known that the US government will track your social media activity by any means it can anyway. Setting everything to public makes it easier for the courts (after all, no need to admit to secret spying when everything is set to public) but I think it'd be an illusion to think the government doesn't have access to this data anyway. Or perhaps this is just a grift so more private companies can start scraping social media as a business model around immigration control.
The most interesting change here is that they're targeting people criticizing Israel's ongoing genocide of Palestinians specifically.
W0lfEagle
Be aware that any comment here or anywhere on the internet or in private messages or spoken in private near a device with a microphone might also be used against you by the US government (yay freedom). You might think it's fine. At some point your personal views too will be at odds with the government.
cpburns2009
This has been the case at least since 2007 with PRISM. That's what Snowden leaked in 2013 which confirmed the long time conspiracy theory that the NSA recorded all communications on the internet.
justahuman74
I guess students will have to delete all social media before applying?
kergonath
Until an empty account is seen as a red flag. The thing is, they do not need a reason to reject visa applications. This will just provide more pretexts and more power trips for border control agents and embassy bureaucrats.
theendisney
Ohh thats a whole new dystopian formula! We all thought instagram was optional but soon it Will be required to show off your beach body. While drinking the correct drink. Enhance with the right ai and catefully edit out your chinese Mexican and african friends.
The gaming quality on yt and twitch can be measured with ai to check if you are not pretending. The immigration interview full of questions about grand theft auto.
HN born as a place for founders to pretend to be civilized and knowledgable can extend to cover everyone. I mean, I wouldnt give a visum to the guy writing this comment.
morkalork
Don't blur your friend's faces, that's suspicious. But if you leave the in their profiles will be matched up and checked too. You think the House Un-American Activities Committee was bad? The future will be 1000x more intense.
frollogaston
This is why I made an unused Facebook account filled with normal stuff before applying to college, back when that was the popular thing.
ASinclair
Simple, just use AI tools to generate fake profiles that seem normal enough to pass inspection by some random State Department employee.
makeitdouble
And that's kind of the point: have social media mostly filled with apolitical or at least non controversial content.
As other pointed out, border control is already an area where an agent can stop basically anyone without any provable justification. More that this specific rule, the whole social climate needs to change to ever get back to a balanced situation.
userbinator
How about no account at all? Don't forget that the Amish exist in the US.
chii
The amish dont require visa in the US...at least atm. But if they end up needing a visa, which would get renamed to social credit score...
AngryData
Not having social media is in itself a listed reason for visa denial because they consider it suspicious.
nickthegreek
2 accounts. 1 fake public, 1 private real.
0xbadcafebee
This must've been what it was like to watch the Roman empire crumble (but at 200x speed). Or, heh, Venezuela at 2x speed. It only took them 13 years to go from a rich country, to collapse in democratic confidence, to total economic implosion & dictatorship.
prmoustache
Vetting by using social medias seems completely bonkers.
For instance I don't have any current instagram, facebook, or tiktok account and my old accounts including the google ones I have used sporadically have always been using generated names[1] but there are a fair number of other people having my real name , how would the US government know I am not hiding by keeping one of those profiles private?
Bottom line: I will never apply for a US Visa and by losing all atractivity to foreign talents and only accept keeping its interbreed assholes this country is completely doomed.
[1] it is quite funny to have whole families from Iceland or Tanzania trying to connect to you because your has their last name.
WarOnPrivacy
For invasive data brokers that link people to their pseudonymous social media accounts, getting the contents of a private feed seems like it'd be routine.
Then they include in the violation bundle they sell to State.
akmarinov
Welcome to the beginning of the US social credit score system.
Today - visa interviews, tomorrow - citizens in the US.
Went to a No Kings rally? Ooops, -2000 points, now you can’t board a plane.
And now I can’t get a visa :(
herbst
You have credit score and a society that builds on it. The concept is far from new, it's just being extended.
(The way your credit score is designed is nether common nor normal outside of the US. And is a strange concept to anyone else as well. It's not much off an social score for the poor as it looks from the outside)
arunabha
> The concept is far from new, it's just being extended.
Maybe, but it's a bit like extending the concept of a grenade to a nuclear bomb. The amount of the 'concept' applied matters substantially.
v5v3
In the Tucker Carlson, Ted Cruz interview yesterday.
Cruz stated similar to "I was taught at a young age that the bible says whoever helps Israel will be blessed by God and those that don't anger god".
Tucker, a Christian, asked where in the bible it said this as he had no recollection of such. Cruz didn't know.
Turns out it doesn't even say as such in the bible.
This is brainwashing at a very young age that has been going on for decades.
As with all things in the bible, it's meaning is subject to interpretation, and I won't attempt to argue for one interpretation vs another. Just putting it out there as some additional context.
hearsathought
Nothing to interpret. That verse is not about israel. It is about abraham. "Israel" happens well after abraham's death.
Also, that verse is from the torah, not the christian bible ( new testament ). It is fundamentally meaningless to christianity as the verses in the quran are.
It's hilarious how people like cruz cherry-pick passages from the old testament. The torah also has quite interesting things to say about homosexuality (death penalty by stoning), slavery (legal) and women's rights (none). What's cruz's views on these topics.
sys_64738
This might be against the ToS of the social media account.
0n0n0m0uz
The internal Israeli left / opposition themselves are much more free to speak and have a more robust debate than permitted in the USA.
dismalaf
The article title is weird. The article body and quote from the US official says the visa process merely requires social media accounts to be publicly visible. "Unlocking" implies handing over credentials...
skybrian
Won't be too long before people will have scrubbed profiles under their real names and use temporary alts for private group chats.
zenonu
... and then there's a falling out in your friends circle, and someone is reported.
silverliver
I guess I would not be allowed entry (the only social media site I use is hn).
Also, wouldn't this just incentivize desperate people to buy fake online accounts that were built over a long period just for this purpose?
fxtentacle
Great to hear that the US visa process is now even more privacy-invasive than travelling to China.
Kiyo-Lynn
Feels a bit much to ask students to open up all their social media just to study in the US. People post things without thinking too much, and now that could hurt their future.
Not sure this is the kind of message we want to send.
vjvjvjvjghv
How many foreigners, illegal or not, are committing crimes? And how much could be found out from social media? This seems extremely paranoid.
On the other hand, maybe this will lead to people putting less stuff on social media. This would probably be a net positive.
lucubratory
It's not intended to detect crimes, it's intended to detect pro-Palestinian political sentiment & deny entry to anyone who has posted that way.
afroboy
Plantarir CEO spoke about the danger of non controlled social media like Tiktok that encouraged people to speak about the genocide happening in Palestine.
foogazi
A purity test
wkat4242
Why does anyone still want to study in the US? I don't even want to visit it anymore. Besides, as LGBT advocate I'm sure they will not even let me in anymore :)
Sorry, I know there's still good people there too.
tim333
Trump is a bit of a blip. This too shall pass.
wkat4242
You're underestimating how much the reputation of and trust in the US has fallen in Europe. Trust arrives on foot and leaves on horseback.
It will take many good administrations to get that trust back. Especially the tariff attacks on US allies basically told us anyone can be elected at any time and throw a wrench in global trade. The amount of decoupling that's started here is huge.
These things take time to materialise so it's not obvious yet. But once the EU has alternatives for things it needs the US for (eg big cloud) why ever switch back?
Also the "buy European" movement sprung up out of nowhere and grew massively.
Trump will hopefully be a blip but the waves will be felt for years to come.
Tadpole9181
He was elected twice. We don't get to play this "it isn't us" shit now.
ykonstant
Trump will pass; the legacy will not. Think about the lasting effects of the Patriot Act, among many many other "temporary measures".
edarchis
I'm pretty sure that they future queen of Belgium, studying at Harvard, will be exempted for this. It will be used when DHS, ICE or any "officer" wants something against you.
Kim_Bruning
Ceterum Censeo the right to Secrecy of Correspondence should be made to apply to modern digital media. Including at borders. Especially between western nations.
Else it becomes impractical to travel securely!
AIorNot
Social media screening - so America is policing people’s opinions on a large scale
Just like Turkey huh? Love that America is still called the “land of the free”
You’re naive if you think they’ll stop with foreign students.
princealiiiii
It's all done to chill free speech, especially "antisemetic" protests of Israel.
duxup
They already asked Harvard to monitor students for “viewpoint diversity” and make adjustments to admissions based on a government selected third party’s instructions.
When they refused Trump started trying to force the to comply.
They're already trying to reach the same thought police type activity with American students.
lmm
Why? Blatantly unconstitutional searches at the border have been going on for decades under administrations from both sides. The US public very evidently doesn't care about the rights of people entering the country. Trying to do the same thing to citizens away from the border will be a different story altogether.
Hnrobert42
The US Supreme Court has long held that the border mitigates "reasonable" in the 4th amendment such that warrantless searches at the border are constitutionally sound. [0]
That said, this isn't a search. It is the presumption of guilt if a search is refused. I agree with you that it's bad policy, but it's not unconstitutional.
also, the border is 100miles from the line. so basically a large part of the land of the free.
linotype
Just because both sides might do it doesn’t make it right.
lmm
I agree. But it makes talking like this is some unprecedented novel violation that creates a big slippery slope seem somewhat disingenuous.
rightbyte
"Whataboutism" and "bothsideism" used to counter critique of hypocrisy might be the most toxic rethorical concepts gaining mindshare lately.
Mountain_Skies
True. After seeing how the tech companies, media, and Biden administration acted during the pandemic, you should be worried about how quickly this can spin out of control.
foogazi
Yeah - what about Brandon ?
rsingel
Lol. The Biden administration who simply asked platforms to enforce their own terms of service?
Maybe you're better example is the Trump administration saying it's going to withhold transportation funding from cities because citizens their dared to protest him, issued presidential orders against law firms that represented people suing him, pulled the security clearances of people who dared to say that the 2020 election was not stolen, and threatened trees and charges against a former DHS official who wrote an unflattering op-ed in the Washington Post.
One of these is not like the other
foogazi
It’s the classic walrus what about- pay no heed
frollogaston
I think the other comment is referring to Biden administration coercing social media companies on covid19 content ranking until a judge stopped it. Idk if this was related, but YouTube had covid19 vaccine videos promoted to a special place on its front page for over a year.
rsingel
Flagging content that's against terms of service, foreign interference or illegal (like voting by text scams) is hardly coercion.
The US really wants to inspect your mind and social media is the closest it can get to a snapshot of your mind.
ulfw
Land of the Free, home of the Brave.
I hope we can finally let all that propaganda of 'freedom' and 'free speech' go to rest now.
duxup
Thought police.
betaby
Like it is today in Russia and Belarus.
Simulacra
I don't understand why the social media companies are not fighting this? This is ridiculous.
acdha
They’re telling everyone that you need to use their services to be allowed into the United States. Some managers are going to be so excited about those engagement numbers!
maeil
I'm not sure how to phrase this within the rules of HN, but I don't understand how anyone on HN 1. can not understand why Meta and Microsoft aren't fighting this 2. can still be remotely surprised by any of this 3. can act this has a single thing to do with security or even with Israel - neither of which remotely factor into the reason behind this policy.
Genuinely, have people been living in Bikini Bottom? I'm so tired of this cognitive dissonance, not wanting to face the reality. As tired as I am of these developments themselves, really. I'm too tired to still be nice. I thought people here were bright.
eth0up
Fighting fire with fire, I guess. Seems very... Chinese for Vespucciland.
I've hypothesized that for as much as I'll always resist it, authoritarianism is an inevitable, predictable result of social complexity and volatility, two factors that are unprecedentedly shaping humanity.
Elites just want it, lowbrow bureaucrats know no other way, and the ever divided plebs, unwilling or unable to actively engage in intelligent mitigation themselves, will either collectively touch their toes or wake up one day to a new and improved boardgame with very strict and uncomfortable rules.
Something many seem to slough off, is the extreme, manifold volatility underlying society, from environmental factors to technological, political, economic, social, epic crisis, etc, and even the remaining mysteries of the human id. All scarcely prepared for and recreationally sneezed at.
I don't see how it's not abundantly clear that as myriad people of influence scramble for their own brands of order, or a single one in this thinly veiled bedlam we call society, that severe constriction isn't imminent. Regardless of Red or Blue; Independent being inconceivable presumably for reasons of exceedingly advanced rationale.
I think an ephemeral golden age (for those who've been on the better scented end of the stick) is ending with an exponential tempo.
Grim but pragmatic.
GardenLetter27
I support Israel, but this is crazy and completely against Free Speech.
seanmcdirmid
What does this mean for China? You should be sharing your WeChat messages not just with your friends and family, but also with Donald Trump? Its not like you have a facebook page, and Wechat doesn't really work like Facebook (it isn't really suited to wide spread sharing, although some people try to do that).
lmm
WeChat still has user profile pages (and probably public posts on there?), even if most people don't use them much. Probably a case of making that public.
FabHK
Your WeChat is already shared with the Chinese government, so you're just sharing with one more.
seanmcdirmid
But the American government doesn’t have a special account, they want it to be “public.”
dubious2
what if their smart and have their social media under a alias?
0n0n0m0uz
So delete them
bhouston
It will get so much worse.
The Palantir project will likely evolve to suck data directly from Meta, Gmail, X, Reddit and the systems of other US companies to create profiles based on non-public data (likes, DMs, deleted posts, comments, etc.)
This will be feed to LLMs to create a whole personality profile, including political leanings.
bn-l
There’s just one political leaning they care about. Weirdly it’s about one country (that recently massacred, by firing machine guns into a crowd, 60 civilians collecting international food aid).
energywut
If you openly criticize genocide and settler colonialism by Israel, you are probably the kind of person who might openly criticize the imperial efforts of the US. Especially once they become even more oppressive.
They know exactly what they are doing.
vixen99
Accepting this and purely as a logistic problem, how would you deal with Hamas who have in their basic charter made clear they don't want Israel to exist?
Should they get the chance, their intention to repeat October 7th has been clearly stated - it's in their charter. What does anyone do under those circumstances? For those who argue that Israel is an illegitimate State, I guess the practical question is where should the 9.5 million colonialist Israelis move to? And who would accept them?
> Accepting this and purely as a logistic problem, how would you deal with Hamas who have in their basic charter made clear they don't want Israel to exist?
Hamas was specifically funded by Netanyahu to prevent a 2SS:
And he weakened the moderates on purpose. So what we need to do is the opposite of Netanyahu's strategy - empower the moderates, move towards a 2SS and sanction/isolate/disempower Hamas and similar.
mitthrowaway2
That's probably a totally separate discussion, but in my opinion they should try to win back the hearts and minds of the Palestinians and thereby totally undermine support for Hamas. Which would certainly not be easy at this point.
lawn
For starters, maybe not massacre women and children who are desperately trying to find food?
throwawayq3423
I've never seen self-reported principles be more quickly abandoned than then self-styled "free speech" crowd once they got power.
afroboy
All of that crap for tiny terrorist state in middle east.
King-Aaron
I'm impressed at both how quickly the United States is falling into blatant authoritarianism, and also at how many people seem to make excuses for it.
amazingamazing
This country enslaved blacks for hundreds of years, slaughtered the natives and put the Japanese into camps and nuked them twice.
It’s always been authoritarian for those that don’t look right
intended
This is too easy a criticism and the unhelpful form of cynicism.
America also made efforts to recognize that those events counted as screwups and failures of their own value systems, and struggled against the forces that allowed such situations to happen.
This isn’t to say they succeeded, or that these situations wouldn’t happen again.
Its to say that theres a difference between pushing against the current, and flowing with it.
defrost
Just as a heads up; the currents, for native americans, are flowing backwards at present:
A member of Spirit Lake Nation was elected to North Dakota’s legislature for the first time last fall thanks to a redistricting lawsuit filed by Jackson-Street’s tribe, alongside the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. The suit claimed that the districts drawn by North Dakota in 2021 violated the Voting Rights Act, and the tribes’ initial success in court triggered a new map and increased representation in 2024.
But last month, a federal appeals court tossed out their victory and declared that only the federal government can sue over violations of the Voting Rights Act, a devastating blow to the ability of these tribes—and others in the region—to seek legal recourse.
There are numerous other examples but an increased inability to complain about unfair and discrimmanatory voting practices highlights the present direction of 'progress'.
amazingamazing
What exactly did America do undo these? Jim Crow for blacks and segregation? Redlining? Mass deportations (they started before Trump)? Patriot act (which still exists in partial form today)?
Thuggery
That's pretty lame criticism considering many of those things were contemporary SOP for all countries. The USA remind abnormally libertarian despite this. Now it's getting abnormally authoritarian.
amazingamazing
These things were definitely not things all countries participated in…
Der_Einzige
Nukes were definitely justified. The Japanese almost succesfully coup'd their own emperor to force the fight to go on in spite of them.
They were fanatical and willing to fight to the last man.
energywut
Quickly? This has been the path we have been on for at least 30 years, probably longer. Plenty of folks have been calling this out for longer.
When you have two parties in control, and they are both staunchly pro-capital, anti-worker parties, one party will push conservative and the other will ensure "nothing fundamentally changes".
Obama, Biden, Bush, and Clinton all had parts to play in empowering the executive, normalizing political violence, demonizing and silencing the left (the actual left -- socialists, workers parties, anarchists, etc.), and ramping up the militarization of the police.
This isn't some sudden moment, it might be the first time it's affected people you know, but this has been happening for awhile now.
Herring
I think it's actually kind of a miracle it didn't happen earlier. This country has been all about getting rich since slavery. Concentration of economic power generally leads to concentration of political power (ie non-democracy). There are tons of pathways, eg lobbying, campaign finance, media ownership, threat of capital flight, regulatory capture, to name a few.
boroboro4
It didn’t happen earlier because before gilded age the US (among whites..) was actually quite good with equality, and then every time we were getting close the opposite force was taking over: once in the beginning of 20s century with worker rights / antitrust and once in 1930s with FDRs New Deal. Interestingly both times things were getting quite good afterwards for the people.
Not sure it’s gonna happen time though.
energywut
I think too many people are too enamored with their "team" to really dig into the policy proposals of presidents and senators. Like, for so many people being a Democrat is purely about being Not A Republican (or vice versa).
I want more people out here who are willing to vote (or withold their vote) for a candidate based on the policy positions. This "Vote Blue No Matter Who" (or whatever the Republican equivalent is) mindset leads to candidates who don't have to hold coherent positions or perform their duties. They simply need to not be the other guy.
While being "not the other guy" they will get courted by capital interests, because they need that money to run their campaigns. It's really not hard to connect the dots between these politicians and the donors who buy them and mysteriously get policies that make regulatory capture and capital concentration easier. It's not even conspiratorial -- it's pretty much out in the open these days.
I'm so tired of hearing, "But not the democrats" or "but not the republicans" -- my friends, stop treating the people you vote for like part of your identity. Expect more from the people who represent you, be harshly critical of your own party to help it grow.
o11c
Don't forget, it's not unique to the US either.
In 1985, France launched a terrorist attack against a protest in New Zealand.
ingohelpinger
how is that not Stasi like?
serenadeineb
"home of the brave . "
blotfaba
Principles such as... slavery, white supremacy, bigotry, genocide, tyranny..
aaron695(dead)
[dead]
infotainment
The country of free speech, everyone!
You are free to say whatever you like, as long as your words do not contradict Official Party Ideology.
nathanaldensr
Some of this goes beyond party. "Anti-semitism" is an AIPAC carve-out and AIPAC owns both parties.
> You are free to say whatever you like, as long as your words do not contradict Official Party Ideology.
“There is freedom of speech, but I cannot guarantee freedom after speech.” ― Idi Amin
fallingknife
Rights don't apply when you are entering another country. Americans have the right to bear arms too, but good luck with that argument when get caught at the border with weapons.
nielsbot
Are you ok denying visas to students based on the contents of their social media profiles?
SoftTalker
I'm a bit skeptical that students are a big source of trouble. The vast majority come here, pay universities a lot of money, spend additional money in the local community, get their degrees, and then go home or maybe stay and work in generally high paying jobs, continuing to contribute to the local economy.
All that said, nobody has a "right" to come to the USA to study. It's something we allow, for a lot of good reasons, but there are doubtless a small number of people that we would not want here.
ImJamal
If the contents of their social media would be a crime in the US I would have no issues with denying visa to students.
Mountain_Skies
>Gays are vile and should not be allowed to exist.
Would you be ok with that social media poster being granted entry into the country?
kennywinker
They’d be welcomed with open arms in ~30% of the country. Screening for thought crimes isn’t a slippery slope, it’s a frictionless plane.
ilya_m
Do I think it's the best use of taxpayers' dollars (ie, mine) to screen for objectionable content on social media? No.
Do I trust the government to police opinions? No, especially when there's no accountability and appeals process.
Do I believe the overall benefits that harassment-free international travel brings to this country outweigh the costs of letting in some visitors whose views I disagree with? Yes.
skeledrew
What action would you take re such posters who are citizens in the country?
vkou
I wouldn't exactly be jumping for joy over it, but that's a juice that's not worth the squeeze.
frollogaston
Yes
mlindner
You're expected to be truthful in your visa application, and not being truthful is grounds for visa rejection.
nielsbot
That’s different that policing social media tho
impossiblefork
Rights always apply, always. This is the thing about human rights enshrined in human rights laws in places like the EU, or about your constitutional rights (although the latter only applies to US citizens and to people physically present in the US).
However, countries may, depending on their laws, choose to not let certain people in on conditions that would otherwise violate guarantees on freedom of speech etc.
However, you do have your constitutional rights at the border etc. There is an exception concerning searches.
kloop
That depends a lot on the constitutional right. They're, generally, phrased as restrictions on the federal government (assumed to apply to state governments under incorporation post civil war).
There are a lot of times the government is limited even dealing with foreigners abroad (in legal theory anyways, ymmv in reality).
qwe----3(dead)
[flagged]
nielsbot
What is coming in illegally?
bigyabai
And a right to bear arms, until you need MANPADs to fight the feds.
Unless you want to cross state lines to get an abortion
mlindner
The courts haven't ruled on that yet but interstate commerce clause is pretty explicit about this kind of thing. A state can't criminalize someone going to another state to do something as that is something reserved to the federal government.
So no, there is no restriction on going to another state to get an abortion.
em-bee
several states are trying to change that. laws are being proposed to ban travel, and although they are being challenged, as you said, the last word on this is not spoken yet.
and even if legal, people having an out-of-state abortion are being sued. that alone is a big restriction, because what good is a right if you don't have the means to defend yourself when that right is being challenged.
FabHK
People in the US are free to say whatever they want.
But not everyone can just come to the US, and looking at what they've said is part of deciding whether they can.
AStonesThrow(dead)
[dead]
Cheer2171(dead)
[flagged]
fallingknife(dead)
[flagged]
protocolture
"You dont have the right to enter another country" How do you know.
"Therefore any country is allowed to investigate you" What for thought crimes?
Bootlicking levels are off the charts here. Theres nothing reasonable about investigating someones social media history, especially because opinions change over time. I dont want to see people in immigration detention because of a decade old social media post. This is the kind of behaviour that we used to criticise failed states for. "Its not safe for you to travel to syria because you gave a talk about human rights abuses of the assad regime" etc.
Americans rightly criticised Australia for preventing americans with wonky ideas from traveling to Australia.
Why is this view suddenly being normalised now that America wants to implement it?
lmm
> "You dont have the right to enter another country" How do you know.
If you're applying for a visa it's because you don't have the right to enter. Not only is there no reason to apply for a visa if you already have the right to enter, it's usually illegal to do so.
> Theres nothing reasonable about investigating someones social media history, especially because opinions change over time. I dont want to see people in immigration detention because of a decade old social media post. This is the kind of behaviour that we used to criticise failed states for. "Its not safe for you to travel to syria because you gave a talk about human rights abuses of the assad regime" etc.
The US has always been unreasonable at the border. Nothing is changing there sadly.
protocolture
>If you're applying for a visa it's because you don't have the right to enter. Not only is there no reason to apply for a visa if you already have the right to enter, it's usually illegal to do so.
Really hinges on how you use the word "right". There's plenty of people in Gaza that have a right to return to their homes, but are unable to thanks to some dicks with tanks and a big wall.
There are plenty of people worldwide who are unable to enter countries when they have an established right to. Like I said. "How do you know"
If a country is occupying or blockading land that doesn't belong to them, the problem isn't their visa procedures. It's not that you have a right to enter that country - you have a right to go to that land.
protocolture
Distinction without a difference. A country is a theoretical concept that is associated with a piece of land.
If a country thinks a place that you have a right to be, is that country, it doesn't diminish your right to be there.
Like for the right of return, it doesn't matter what flag is flapping in the wind, the refugees have an equal right to return to their homes. Its actually the missing link in most discussions about Israel. They could have their single state solution with literally zero fanfare if they just let everyone return to their land. The issue is that they have settled other people on that land in the mean time, and ultimately their goal has always been settlement. So they have to resist the return of those refugees.
kristjansson
Nonetheless one can be dismayed at seeing what those we've placed in power decide to do with that privilege.
Bilal_io
The issue is that the US claims to be a free speech absolutist and even tries to apply this morality outside its borders using criticism and sometimes force.
amanaplanacanal
The executive can only enforce laws passed by the legislature. The first amendment says that "Congress shall make no law". So how the hell can the executive make decisions about anything based on a person's speech? If Congress approved this, it's unconstitutional. If they haven't, the executive is going beyond their purview, which is also unconstitutional.
lolc
How would you like to be probed by your host country today?
lmz(dead)
[flagged]
duxup
Next up is "you don't have a right to go to college" right?
Trump administration has already made demands to monitor US students for "viewpoint diversity" and adjust admissions accordingly ...
fallingknife
That's correct, you don't. Colleges can and will deny you admissions if you express certain unpopular opinions.
duxup
In this case the government wishes to do so.
exiguus(dead)
[flagged]
nyanpasu64
Why do half of your comments (most of the ones in uppercase) sound like they're written by AI?
exiguus
English is not my native language
dang
Just for clarity, we'd rather have your own words than words processed through an LLM. (I'm not saying you used an LLM—just explaining the principle. LLMs are amazing but we don't want HN conversations to be mediated by them.)
Non-native English speakers are not only welcome on HN, we're in awe of how good their English is. Most of us only wish we had any French, German, Hindi, etc. at all. So please feel free to write as you write.
bufferoverflow(dead)
[flagged]
dang
We don't want crude flamebait on Hacker News either, so please don't post it.
Edit: ok, that's enough. We've banned the account.
Pity to lose such a great username, but not destroying the community is more important.
TZubiri(dead)
[flagged]
intended
Your argument only makes sense, when you jump through the hoops, squint, and crucially - add in your bits to make it make sense.
The bit you added here was “99% of people from my country broke visa conditions”.
This is something that is added by you, to make it make sense. What you are unaware of, is that the current visa process already accounts for this. I know of people who had visas rejected, because freelancer with their own training business are counted as flight risks. They get rejected at the interview stage itself. And it seems that wait times for tourists visas are years long.
Now, you might be the kind of person, who by nature either tries to see the good in something, or takes a contrarian position. The question is, did you dive beneath the ice with knowledge of what arguments are too far?
eesmith
"If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him." (Attributed to Cardinal Richelieu; disputed.)
The more information given, the more likely there will be a false positive.
"You say you didn't visit the US but here's a picture of you in Vegas." "That's the Eiffel Tower. In Paris." "No, it's Las Vegas - I saw it last month. Entry rejected."
TZubiri
I know you are being rhetorical and exaggerating. But being executed for writing something is something that has happened during political instability in my country and not a rhetorical risk. It really puts things into perspective.
no I don't consider US border officers to be a risk in my threat model. I'm more concerned about dying from what I post, whether by a junta or kidnapping thieves. I personally wouln't care much other than perhaps suing for a refund of the flight .
If I'm denied entry because of something I said, it's not the end of the world, I would at most sue for a flight refund.
eesmith
I'm being jocular, yes. But don't let that hide the hard reality behind it.
The more information the government (or anyone else with power over you) has, the higher the chance of false positives and of confusing correlation with causation. It's not like they will have a crack team of auditors review everything.
If you are arrested and conveyed to a foreign torture jail because an AI scanning your social media posts hallucinated that you are an international gang member, then it's also not the end of the world.
foogazi
Good dog!
0dhhhhd9
Damn, I guess I shouldn't have asked for that jet from the single biggest supporter of anti-Israeli protests.
xdennis
I'm very split on this. On one hand it sucks from a privacy perspective, but on the other, it makes complete sense for the US to not allow anti-Americans there.
I don't understand why so many people who hate the US to it's core want to live there. E.g., Ilhan Omar: "the US is one of the worst countries".
creata
Did Ilhan Omar actually say "the US is one of the worst countries"? The only quote I'm finding[0] is one in which she says it's turning into one of the worst countries. In the same sentence she calls the US a "beacon of hope".
State Dept on what is considered Antisemitism: https://www.state.gov/defining-antisemitism/
These definitions are intentionally broad and designed to censor criticism of Israel. You have more freedom to criticize the US Government than to criticize a foreign country.
> Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.
There are plenty of dual citizens that would proudly admit that their first loyalty is to Israel.
Other examples from the document use the term "Jews as a people", whereas this example seems to apply to accusing any individual.
Although perhaps a generous interpretation of the example, is that it excludes Israeli dual citizens, because Israel would be one of "their own nations"
> Contemporary examples of antisemitism ... could, taking into account the overall context, include...:
Context is important. The examples are not true in all cases, but rather context dependent.
Accusing Jewish citizens of your country of being more loyal to Israel than their country simply because they're Jewish? Antisemitic.
Accusing a specific Jewish citizen that has said they are more loyal to Israel? Not antisemitic.
Plenty of dual citizens that are not Israeli citizens and would admit the same thing, but we don't go around throwing such accusations at them.
> this example seems to apply to accusing any individual.
Does it? It would be accusing the individual just because they are part of a certain group.
Simply not true. There is plenty of rhetoric about immigrants (even 2nd gen+) in Western countries being accused of being disloyal to their Western citizenship in favor of their ethnic origin countries. Chinese, Indians, Middle Easterners, Latin Americans etc are all accused of this; see the recent riots in LA for a very recent example. Yet this insinuation is made illegal only with respect to one country only for whatever reason.
I'm sure this definition is going to be applied to Zionist organizations that do this on a regular basis.
Absolutely zero reasons to give the current US government the benefit of the doubt
I think citizens is meant to mean “American citizens” as opposed to Jewish people that are citizens of other countries. It seems intended to prevent people saying Jewish people cannot be loyal to America, though I agree the wording is clumsy.
Trump and his friends are fascists (corporatism, corruption, strongman rule, us vs them with human rights abuses vs the "them", etc).
And the corruption within USAID was off the charts..billions of dollars shovelled out the door to Democrat friends.
The bypassing of the first amendment by pressuring social media companies to self-censor.
And the weaponisation of the legal system to take out a political opponent.
I think your description far more accurately describes the Democrats than the Republicans.
They probably shouldn't do that and should just say fascist.
But obviously this is not an excuse for Israel government supporting religious orthodox extremists and their settlements and aggression against Muslims in the area near Jordan. If you just take the situation there then it is basically a war zone.
If West Bank was considered part of Israel then I can see elements of apartheid but people who say it's apartheid also say West Bank is a separate country. You can't have apartheid in another country. Call it invasion/occupation or apartheid, but pick one? (Also yes this is whataboutism but what Russia is doing is orders of magnitude worse if invasions are considered.)
They accuse others of being nazis so that they themselves can be nazis.
Some interesting maps thankyou.
This is legitimately debatable. If your allegiance is first to a foreign state, in my view, you should have to relinquish your American citizenship.
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
In terms of what dictates your action, true allegiance is more significant: it is possible to really love somebody and not do something for their sake, but if you really are a part of something then it’s not much of a choice.
Some people, culturally or temperamentally, have an allegiance to their family and do not care beyond that. Some feel allegiance to a community (whether defined religiously or geographically or elsewise). Some people feel allegiance to nothing. In the US specifically feeling belonging to one’s state I presume could be more powerful than belonging to the country. It is not always or not everywhere that people feel a strong allegiance to a country, even if they always lived in one and never thought of moving.
Among people who do feel country allegiance, I would imagine it is rare to feel belonging to two different countries with a similar force. Perhaps those people do exist (e.g., someone who mostly lived in country A but was born to immigrants from country B and also spent a lot of time in country B), and then it would be mighty unfair if they had to pick one, but people I know can usually classify one citizenship as “convenience” and another one as “true”.
Comprehensively assessing true allegiances (or lack thereof) of a prospective citizen is fraught, but as phrased the question does not actually require that. For 99.9% of people, “do you feel allegiance first to a foreign state?” is pretty unobtrusive and has a clear answer. The main caveat is, of course, that those for whom the answer is positive will almost certainly just lie.
In case using tangentially related quotes is considered smarter than original thought, I looked one up too and I raise you Orson Scott Card:
“Every person is defined by the communities she belongs to and the ones she doesn’t belong to… a person who really believes she doesn’t belong to any community at all invariably kills herself, either by killing her body or by giving up her identity and going mad.”
I have one or two friends in that situations, and they want to do that. But it also cost a $2,350 fee to give up your US of A citizenship.
And, frankly, while this is most prominent with Islam, that religions describe their goal to be a single state and trying to be a single state is the norm, not the exception. Christianity is the exception here that does not want to have state power (even though that rule screams "compromise with the Roman emperor", and hasn't exactly been followed very well once Christians were well established)
So no more muslims allowed in the US then? In fact no religion allowed except Christianity or revering the US directly somehow?
However, I disagree with your conception of Islam as a state, even if it was explained to you by Muslims. The strongest argument I can build from your statements is that, according to the reference to the end of the Sunni Caliphate in 1923,
p1) only Sunnis are Muslims, and
p2) the Caliphate is unique, and
p3) the Sunni Caliphate of 1923 is the original one, thus
c) it was the state of Islam.
We can disprove all of these premises. p1) is obvious, there are more Muslim religions than just Sunnis. The earliest schism was the Sunni-Shiites split, happening immediately after the first prophet's death.
About p2), while I'm fuzzy on the details, I'm pretty sure that between the 900s and the 1900s there were at least 3 major, parallel Caliphates and also a bunch of smaller Caliphates. Geographically they were even sometimes overlapping. It might be interesting that the Caliphate of the Ottoman Empire (the one in question) was a Hanafist (a Sunni splinter group) Caliphate.
On p3), the Sunni caliphate of 1923 was reestablished after a 300 year "hiatus" by the Ottoman Emperor to lay claim on Crimea. It had no representation besides a leader, the Sultan. Before the dissolution of the major Sunni Caliphate in the 1500s it relocated several times, from today's Syria to today's Iraq, to then and now Egypt. Thus we can say that the Caliphate had no continuous existence. We can furthermore say that the time the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire was the Caliph, it was because it was a diplomatic ploy of the secular power of the Ottoman Empire.
Therefore, c) must be wrong. There are more Muslims than Sunnis, the Sunni Caliphate wasn't unique, and the Caliphate that ended in 1923 was not the original one.
A less philosophical counter-argument could be the vigorous infighting between different Muslim groups we see today. I'm curious how the war on Iran changes that, if at all.
Hence debatable.
Let me escalate: I think such a bill would find bipartisan support. Right now might be a good time to attempt it.
I hate the idea of revoking citizenship. But a question about swearing, on naturalisation, that your supreme allegiance is to America should be incredibly popular to secure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_loyalty#Jewish_Believers
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/21/us/politics/jews-disloyal...
In general, you should be wary of "forms of antisemitism" (or similar "forms of x-ism/x-phobia/etc"). Such things usually consists of the defensible but vacuous notion that "doing X in an antisemetic way is antisemetic", while attempting to imply that doing X is antisemetic in general, regardless how it's done, or at the least that doing X is suspect. But the only proof that has been provided in such cases is that X has ocassionally been done in an antisemetic way, which you could say for just about anything. Since X in these cases is not per se anti semetic, it is more helpful to identify what antisemetic thing has often been done alongside it, and be on the lookout for that, instead of for X.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detention_of_R%C3%BCmeysa_%C3%...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detention_of_Mahmoud_Khalil
It's on all the US embassy sites, although it says "are requested":
Effective immediately, all individuals applying for an F, M, or J nonimmigrant visa are requested to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media accounts to ‘public’ to facilitate vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the United States under U.S. law.
https://uk.usembassy.gov/visas/
https://ca.usembassy.gov/visas/
https://in.usembassy.gov/visas/
etc.
The smart ones won’t sign to it. The dumb ones will take too long to arrest and charge.
Imagine if DHS said they are going to ban anyone who criticizes china or russia or saudi arabia from traveling to the US? Both the republicans and democratics would be raising hell. Why the silence when it comes to israel?
What Homeland is DHS securing? The US or Israel? Why is it that so much of our political class openly and unabashedly act like agents of israel? Doesn't matter who you vote for. Republican or democrat. As soon as they are elected, they all grovel for israel. How many wars are we going to fight for israel? How many american colleges are we going to attack for israel? How many people are we going to censor for israel? Just doesn't make any sense.
According to Jimmy Carter:
"The many controversial issues concerning Palestine and the path to peace for Israel are intensely debated among Israelis and throughout other nations — but not in the United States. For the last 30 years, I have witnessed and experienced the severe restraints on any free and balanced discussion of the facts. This reluctance to criticize any policies of the Israeli government is because of the extraordinary lobbying efforts of the American-Israel Political Action Committee and the absence of any significant contrary voices.
It would be almost politically suicidal for members of Congress to espouse a balanced position between Israel and Palestine, to suggest that Israel comply with international law or to speak in defense of justice or human rights for Palestinians."
https://www.latimes.com/news/la-oe-carter8dec08-story.html
Carter was of course widely (and absurdly) slandered as an antisemite. He probably wouldn't get a visa.
He didn't say that.
> know two members of Congress speaking frequently in defense of Palestine
This is your evidence? Really? I mean, do you guys hear yourselves?
Two members of congress? Out of hundreds? Two members who, might I remind everyone, are constantly accused of being anti-American communists?
> Was it almost politically suicidal for them?
Yes! These two are treated like the scum of the Earth by 100% of the American right and 80% of the American left!
It's not even debatable that the US is absurdly pro-Israel. I don't know what we're even arguing here. Zionists should all agree that Zionism is good, right? So why are we arguing that Zionists are some sort of minority? You should be ecstatic that our government is explicitly Zionist!
Or this is the story line that US politicians have bought and unpacked after being hand delivered by AIPAC with a brief case of money plus a set of blackmail love letters waiting to be leaked if they don’t take it.
I am convinced that our govt never had spine to stand up for freedom unless Israel/lobbyists were behind it. They quarrel amongst themselves because of Israel and agree in large numbers because of Israel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_genocide
> Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
That's awfully anti-Semitic thinking of you, buddy. ICE HSI would like to know your current location for your free trip to the gulag.
There are more Jewish people in the US than Israel. I guess this is what they're securing against?
https://www.adl.org/resources/report/audit-antisemitic-incid...
Or who knows, maybe they ban Trump critics or commies from entering the US? I will definitely avoid travelling to the US due to the Trump Administration's hostility towards immigrants. These screening policies will probably remain in place under the next administration.
There are more chinese in the US than jews. So is DHS going to ban anyone who makes anti-china posts? We have a lot of arabs and palestinians. Why isn't DHS protecting them? Shouldn't DHS check every israeli's social media for anti-palestinian comments?
> Or who knows, maybe they ban Trump critics or commies from entering the US.
What does that have to do with israel and "antisemitism"?
I'm not sure the DHS is protecting anyone other than the Trump Administration's narratives at this point.
Everything from Tiktok bans to banning social media for teens. Who's going to fight US wars if your canon fodder witnessed Israel's inhumane behaviour as teens growing up. Nothing todo with China.
It's a national security threat alright.
They haven’t exactly been model citizens these past few years.
Plus it acts this way with the blessing of so-called liberal democracies so that we must confront the absolute hypocrisy by voicing our criticism.
> Contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere could, taking into account the overall context, include, but are not limited to
One stands out though
> Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
That seems to be a perfectly fine thing to do, comparing one government's policies with another. Maybe instead of saying "Nazis", maybe one can say "Government of Nazi Germany" and one wouldn't be labelled as an antisemite.
I doubt that. I would honestly be shocked if anyone with anti-Trump posts would 'pass' DHS screening.
> “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
In IHRA’s defense, this definition was never intended for legal use. But here we are.
> Manifestations might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic. Antisemitism frequently charges Jews with conspiring to harm humanity, and it is often used to blame Jews for “why things go wrong.” It is expressed in speech, writing, visual forms and action, and employs sinister stereotypes and negative character traits.
The reasons given are extremely broad, so it makes nuances like this largely irrelevant. If an immigration officer perceives their duty (or maybe it's just their own personal opinion) to be to reject applications which are critical of Israel, then that's exactly what they're going to do. And you have no ability to appeal decisions, not that you'd even know what caused those decisions.
FWIW the people I'm referencing were also completely upstanding, educated individuals with high competence in English. It's a great way to make one loathe the double standard given to people who just illegally cross the border. Even moreso when you consider that each of these applications costs hundreds of dollars in places where that's often a rather substantial sum of money (just as it would be in most places in e.g. South America).
There are obviously issues of subjectiveness here, but that’s also nothing new in the world of immigration. These decisions are made by humans, not robots (or at least, robots trained by humans).
If a censor is trying to determine if a particular post doesn’t contain antisemetic content, this paragraph is not helpful.
Well, they do state one negative criterion:
> However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.
I have never seen this principle successfully cited as an affirmative defense, however. They give examples that contradict this quote, so I don’t think we’re supposed to take it seriously.
> Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
One does not entail the other. You can support our right to self-determination while not supporting Israel's apartheid-style policies, but this sentence conflates them.
> Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
This is pure whataboutism. Israel is actually given incredible leeway by America, and I usually see this trotted out to shut down legitimate criticism. There's a good discussion to be had about why we don't criticize China, or why we ignore atrocities in African countries, but none of that absolves Israel from its misdeeds.
> Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
Call it "sparkling ethnic cleansing" then. Ironically, actual genocide scholars have pointed out that when the Shoah is your metric, then almost nothing can compare, rendering the word useless.
And secondly why would US government target only anti-semits, will they check for anti-white racism, African-American racism, anti native-American racism, homophobia etc. This is a mess of a policy. And Trump is openly homophobic and anti-LGBTQ+, what that should tell us?
Abraham Lincoln said: "At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."
I don't know that it's specifically required for a visitor visa, but 'Good Moral Character' is required for naturalization in the US. Activity on social media is probably an indication of moral character, so it's not unreasonable to check social media before issuing visas that have a path towards citizenship. Student visas may technically be visitor visas, but there's a clear path F-1 -> OPT -> H-1B -> EB-2 or EB-3; if you're going to check on moral character at the end of all that, you may as well check at the beginning too.
What constitutes good moral character might not be a great question for a government to decide. There is certainly potential and precident of the government using good moral character as a proxy for discrimination that has nothing to do with morality.
This is absolutely not true.
There isn't a single country in the world with absolute freedom of speech to begin with. And even if we take the very permissive freedom of speech of the US, it is matched by only very few countries, even in the west.
As a simple example, here's a map of the countries where it's at least an offence to insult the head of state: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Lese-maj...
> Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor
> Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
> Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
...
Many of the examples make sense, but these four above are absurd.
I draw comparisons to Roman Empire, would that please them better? Because Roman Empire also had racist expansionist state policies.
(It's usually difficult to decisively prove that someone is applying a double standard, but I think here we're assuming that was somehow firmly established.)
But I could have double standards for all type of countries! I tend to hold the US at a higher standard than most countries for almost anything, and I think everyone holds Germany to a much higher standards with respect to minority rights (particularly, Jews) than other countries.
I think people overindex on Israel as "the only Jewish state", and less as "just another country". I wish we could entirely separate the identity of the Jewish people and the state of Israel at least in the discourse. It would make everything healthier.
While I think there's quite a lot of antisemitism out there, I find it questionable trying to deduce antisemitism. Explicitly expressed antisemitism itself is something else. I also find it very questionable to redefine the term that it includes deductions.
Just a bundle of mixed messages and doublethink to allow the right kind of hate.
“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.
One you see that extortion works, you tighten the screws to see how much you can get out of it before it flops.
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.
Social media is where one shares ones social life (it's in the name!). Technical discussion forums are something entirely different.
Naturally, there is sometimes crossover (I'm thinking of a motorbike forum I frequent), but to suggest the likes of HN is social media is demonstrably false.
When it’s common to have deleted your accounts due to widespread privacy impacts, it won’t be such a showstopper.
Be the change you wish to see in the world.
Its sort of a mark of upper class (or just having a class) in more developed societies these days.
Sidenote - all folks here working for meta - shame on you. I get the greed part, but then you define what sort of human being you are and what your legacy is.
(Sorry, I mean this to read as a question, not an assertion.)
And the irony is that this would reject only those who properly did the paperwork and won't stop the people who prefer different methods of entry.
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.
Gay man here. Multi-ethnic, world travelled.
American evangelicals are up there with the mullahs in opposing both free society and everything Christ preached.
And do you think permanent residency or citizen applicants should be screened for their beliefs?
https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2012/dec/07/einstein...
even for jewish nobel laureats in physics
why it should be different for more serious things like residence or citizenship?
Of course, your scenario is a big ol’ straw person, as those beliefs are not what they are screening for.
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.
What do you think happened in a trial where a not guilty verdict is reached?
Actually in the US you can - it's why there's stories of innocent men and women being released from jail after other evidence proves their innocence (eg: DNA).
You missed this bit that parent said:
"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?"
Non-LGBT front line.
I, personally, don't see a problem with creating an ideological test for certain kinds of visa holders or permanent residents. As Karl Popper noted in outlining the paradox of tolerance, unlimited tolerance can lead to the destruction of tolerance itself. I think it's worth exploring ways for the government to prevent enemies of liberalism from entering the country, even if we already face illiberalism at home.
That being said, I think this specific proposal threatens personal privacy far too much to be justified.
Like, I'm "Texas from Texas"- my anglo ancestors go back before the 1836 revolution.
But I'm not a racist so I have often been told that I'm "not really from Texas".
It's the same vibe here. I'm way more worried about the fact that they wouldn't let me back into the country if I had to pass an ideological litmus test than I am worried that someone with illiberal beliefs is going to join the other theocrats in Texas.
If someone has "bad" ideas and they keep them to themselves by having private social media accounts, it's crazy to think it's a risk to society.
Countries already have rules to deal with hate speech, inciting riots, etc.
People can believe whatever they like as long as they don't become a movement dedicated to murdering those they don't like.
Historically, observably, and objectively, the US right has much more of a history with political murder than the left does.
This isn't some ideological purity test about "liberalism". This is about maintaining a culture that supports a broad spectrum of views in a peaceful way.
When the state itself crosses that line the state itself becomes oppressive, and would-be residents should be asking themselves whether that's the kind of state they want to live in, or visit.
The worst part is this has the possibility to spread to other countries (that the US can twist the arm of) because they want to extend their policies further.
Stop going to the US. Is it pretty? There are way better places on earth. Is it fun? There are way funnier places ok earth. There's no reason to submit to all that degrading behavior.
Good riddance. Let the. Keep their decadent country to themselves until it crumbles.
At the very least, the majority of Americans certainly condoned the current administration at the polling booth - or couch. The Trump campaign can't be accused of not being up-front with its agenda.
37% approve illegal deportations to El Salvador. Not a majority, but a shoking approval for literally illegal, both domestically and internationally, operations. General Trump disapproval is barely over 50%. These reflect a widespread rot in the culture, not just a rogue administration.
https://www.economist.com/interactive/trump-approval-tracker
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/06/17/americans-ha...
Meanwhile, I recently received a survey from some industry association in the USA asking what it would take for me to return to travelling in the USA. Like asking a bunch of questions about accommodations, travel, flights, etc. Without even mentioning the obvious.
Do Americans not know how they are perceived in the rest of the world?
Note that in the pre-social media era, this particular bs would not be possible.
There are plenty of other countries to immigrate too, at this point many are probably better than the US. Stop bothering us and let us work our problems out.
Based on the way Americans vote, I don't think that hospitality is there for the majority of Americans. I know the way the American system of politics has shifted to a binary choice doesn't leave much room for nuance when it comes to specific policies, but when Americans were faced with a choice between a racist, misogynist, fraudulent, insurrectionist sex offender and anyone else, they showed their values.
Plus, the country's leader announced he was considering invading a close ally, that kind of threat cannot be ignored either, though it's only one of the more recent threats to world peace that only happens to hit close to home for me. I'm sure people in the Middle East and Central or South America will have heard this kind of talk before.
In the same vein, I hope people judge my country for the fact that right extremists that have held a significant amount of power for years now. There are hospitable, kind people in every street in every town, but I won't pretend the average person will be like that; voter demographics have definitely been a continuous source of disappointment for me. Perhaps that's one of the downsides of democracy: the people of a country show their true colours quite publicly, and can't hide behind "that's just what the regime thinks".
You're right about the beauty, though. America is a very pretty place.
Don't forget serial cheater with multiple divorces (supposedly the choice of the religious people of "family values"), blatantly corrupt out in public, borderline senile (seriously, listen to the guy speak for more than a minute, it's barely coherent), mocking disabled people, etc etc etc.
How that person is even seriously taken as a candidate, let alone actually winning anything, is genuinely beyond me. Especially for a second term after multiple convictions inbetween.
Being all "jesus christ is my savior" has nothing to do with actual morals, just power.
Morale has declined too, though.
One of most famous speeches in U.S. history talks about a government that is “of the people, by the people, for the people.” If the State behaves in a certain way, it is of the people. Many people who cast their vote for the current regime are perfectly cordial in face-to-face interactions; but nonetheless they gave their consent to these policies. There is a deeply divided plurality, of course, but I’d rather limit my visits to the U.S. regardless of its natural beauties or the hospitality of its populace, be it real or superficial. Were I a student from outside the U.S., forget it, I would never consider it a safe option for post-secondary education. The absolute risk of serious harm, I imagine, is low; but who needs this humiliation?
The American government is waging economic war on us with the openly announced intention of annexing us. American pundits (and the idiot ambassador Trump sent us) tell us to downplay it, but the president keeps bringing it up!
I'm still working to cut more American goods and companies out of my life. I'm sorry, but Americans are responsible for what their government does. If you wish to be forgiven, you must first stop doing what you say you're sorry for!
There’s a high degree of variability there based on location, your English fluency, and skin color. I know people who’ve had very different experiences based on that - it’s why my white European friends never think twice about going on a backwoods camping trip but some from Africa or South America stopped. Even if most people are nice, the ⅓ or so set the tone for the entire trip.
Yeah, the jury is still out on the second part of the claim.
As a very run of the mill Australian, I would not feel safe crossing your border right now. The overreach, lack of transparency and documented instances of recent abuse put it at about the same risk as Russia or China. If border force is having a bad day, bad luck, you get fucked over with no recourse, no transparency. Too bad.
It is no surprise that tourism has plummeted.
UK is already almost as bad. But UKs political elite is maybe even more pro-Israel than USAs.
- https://www.gov.uk/government/news/joint-statement-from-the-... - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-and-partners-unite-to-...
https://www.declassifieduk.org/bbc-chief-downplays-britains-...
The UK's media have also provided extremely slanted reporting.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/25/visitors-to-...
It's been genuinely shocking to see how many EU leaders are in lock step over this. Only Spain and Ireland have broken ranks and called Gaza what it is.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/aug/02/jeremy-corb...
August 2022, after the invasion of Ukraine, calling for "peace" by stopping shipments of armaments to Ukraine, saying they won't solve anything. The useless communist party of France has the same rhetoric, as do the far right loonies here. Because letting Ukraine fall to the Russians will definitely get peace.
Anyone with that sort of opinion is either incredibly dumb, or paid by the Kremlin.
Labeling those with different views on Ukraine-Russia policy as putinists is the same phenomenon as Israel critics being labeled antisemites or pro-Hamas.
What peace deal was on the table for Ukraine in 2022? Surrender and let their population be brutalised by the Russians, their culture and language erased, their civilians and military tortured and raped? Great deal, I wonder why they didn't take it.
It has solved the immediate problem of limiting the Russian expanse and subsequently war crimes in Ukraine. It's literally the best that can be done right now, until Putin realises he can't win.
> Labeling those with different views on Ukraine-Russia policy as putinists is the same phenomenon as Israel critics being antisemites or pro-Palestine.
No, because both sides in the Israel/Palestine conflict both have good points and deficiencies. Both have a right to exist, and both have done terrible things to one another. There are nuances, and there can be a solution where both exist. But both need to take part of it.
In Ukraine, Russia is a genocidal regime invading its neighbour. Ukraine being forced to give up territory and concessions on army/NATO restrictions would just guarantee they'll be weaker for Russia to invade again in a few years. If you want peace, take it up with Putin. Preventing help getting to Ukraine to defend itself is serving Putin's interests and nothing more. The war stops the second Putin stops.
Moderation of threads has been done the same way for years on HN. The guidelines have been in place and essentially the same for many years, and it's been the same people upholding them for a long time too.
Please read and observe the guidelines, particularly these ones:
Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.
Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.
When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."
Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.
Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.
Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes.
Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something.
Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. It tramples curiosity.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
This is not why your comment was flagged.
> accept you have a problem
Don’t write like this and you will receive fewer downvotes/flags.
> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
> strange moderation
The actions are not from site moderators; other users thought your comment violated one or more the guidelines so they flagged it.
source https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/study/now-lack-of-a...
Time to go study in Europe, folks.
You have the freedom to be off the grid, but the states have the freedom to reject your entry.
If I own land, I should be able to invite anyone, anywhere to come stand on it. This idea that you have no right to freedom of movement and travel on Earth is a ridiculous one.
Passports as a concept are only about a hundred years old. Prior to that if you wanted to go somewhere, you just went.
Naturally there's conflicts between different rights, and yours end where other's begin.
In this case one should not be able to jeopardize the safety or well being of their neighbours by inviting
>Passports as a concept are only about a hundred years old. Prior to that if you wanted to go somewhere, you just went.
We did have castles for quite some centuries
Somehow, most people now treat “belonging to the land” as a positive concept.
No one is saying states don’t have the right.
States can go even further. They can decide to exit economic unions, trade agreements, etc. You have sovereignty.
Everyone knows you have freedom to play cards as you see fit. Everyone who understands how the game is played, will also make moves accordingly.
There’s nothing to be defensive about.
On another topic, I think neither individuals nor the states, have sovereignity over the land, only The State has. But I may be mistaken.
I’m not engaging in click fraud or attempting to monetize an account illegally. And it’s certainly doing what anyone could do on their own. Or is everyone 100% honest on social media all of the time?
If you go deep into this route you'll end up using proxies to rotate ips, which are sometimes obtained through compromised devices.
One thing is the theory, but look into how this is done, robotic interfaces like with selenium, shady proxies, account markets, you get a feel of exactly what type of people use this. If you into forums there's a lot of third worlders that go as far as using or selling fakepassports to make LI accounts.
These are all forms of Social Media.
Why is it so difficult to believe that there are people here who view social media as a harmful thing they try to mostly avoid?
This hn account is my only social media account.
I do not use apps, nor carry a cell phone.
If your parking requires an app, I am not paying.
Should the court require me to sign an affadavid stating I do not use email nor text messaging, so shall I attest.
Fun tip for ex-redditors: you can view multiple subreddits (without an account) adding `+` between communities within URLs, e.g. https://old.reddit.com/r/hackernews+worldnews+dataISbeautifu...
I don't know that "resetting my account" is the solution to "harmful and I want to avoid". I get why you're doing it in your mind (and there's validity to some parts), but to me "I see social media as harmful" means "I don't go on social media", not "I keep going on it, just with different credentials every so often".
If you are just going to blindly be indistinguishable from bad actors and do no effort in distinguishing yourself., then yea, don't travel to that country.
I'm not even comfortable with ICANN based DNS given that the identity requirements amount to an impressum. That's fine for business dealings but interpersonal communications (including the metadata) should be private from outside observers.
Naturally, there is sometimes crossover (I'm thinking of a motorbike forum I frequent), but to suggest the likes of HN is social media is demonstrably false.
The exact quote: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/immigration/rubio-orders-tough...
This part is important: "any foreigners seeking to visit Harvard University"Is Rubio's cable sent to US embassies worldwide public? It would be nice to see the full text.
Effective immediately, all individuals applying for an F, M, or J nonimmigrant visa are requested to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media accounts to ‘public’ to facilitate vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the United States under U.S. law.
Pick any at random to verify.
I thought ET/Hindustan Times etc showed up in Google Search results since I search from the region. But if they show up before Bloomberg/FT/WSJ etc for other regions too, then ET's SEO team is doing something terrific.
For the applicant? Visa fraud rules. For people fucking with third parties? Absolutely nothing.
Even Uber requires facial biometrics for an account now if you try to sign up using a prepaid card and VPN.
Is reality supposed to be less insane than this? Is this even insane in the first place?
If I was a non-US person, who previously wanted to visit or move the US -- as a student, industry engineer/scientist, academic researcher, teacher, doctor/nurse, investor/founder, conference attendee, or tourist -- recent news events would've already had me put that wish on hold, indefinitely.
Even though those all are people that the US wants coming, they are being discouraged.
So, who has the US already started missing out on, what are the situations of people who are still coming, and how soon will even they stop?
I wouldn't say indefinitely but it did indeed put a dent after that 2 German tourists being detained for a week. I even got a US flight ticket (for tourism) as a gift from my mom since I had told her I want to visit SV but that one got on hold too.
I don't consider myself exceptionally competent or talented so I'm not sure you're missing out on much tho. At least big companies, probably not much. Top of the top talents are probably not deterred and big companies probably have framework to mitigate the turbulence
I think economic freedom is a powerful motivator. Unlocking a social media account is hardly a deterrent.
These instructions are symptoms that show that the institutional fitness is degraded.
Good planning would be to come to America, take advantage of the increase in pay or opportunity, and several years later, leave once the inevitable co-morbidities become too much.
Sounds like an amazing place if you're healthy and able to work, the two things that are not guaranteed day-to-day, and will inevitably decline with age.
> Unlocking a social media account is hardly a deterrent.
I'm always reading on HN that America is inherently destined to out-innovate China because of "Democracy" and "Free Speech" - but here we are, with first amendment rights being chilled[1] in blatant ways. I wonder how those HNers see the future of American innovation.
1. Historically, the American government has always been hands-off with the KKK and American Nazis because of their 1A rights. Rights that don't seem to extend to vocal brown university students criticizing a foreign government.
If you're from a wealthy place like Europe or Canada: The United States is still far richer, bigger market, and more risk-encouraging than your homeland. Not everybody will want to move from those places, but I've seen first-hand how many ambitious people will. The ambitious culture and opportunity can't be overstated, and the ability to create a better life in a far more efficient country that rewards your efforts.
If you're from a poor place like Latin America: Almost anywhere in the United States is still better quality-of-life, better pay, etc., plenty of reasons to move.
From my sample size, the only people discouraged by this are political agitators who take up valuable spots at our universities, and contribute ~nothing to our economy anyways. Almost every immigrant I know supports these actions.
In Europe, freelance rates differ from hourly employee pay by a factor of 2-3. As an employee, it's pretty difficult for a company (except small companies, which are exempt) to get rid of you, and the common approach is that they just offer you a relatively high severance payment.
So all things considered, I would think being an employee in the US is pretty similar to being a freelancer in Europe. Pay-wise and security wise. The major difference is that you have to find clients. Realistically multiple, due to "fake freelancing" regulations.
The availability of ridiculous amounts of investment cash is a good motivator. Startups start in America because American investors are willing to throw billions at the wall just to see if something will stick or not. Try that in Europe and you'll never get anywhere. The same also used to apply for scientific grants, and if you can find a corporate sponsor it probably still applies.
Higher wages are also a factor. More than one skilled programmer I know have considered working themselves "half to death" for a few years to build up wealth in the USA, and then returning home to comfortably spend that wealth.
Plus, despite everything else, the USA has some excellent facilities for higher education. If you want your kids to have opportunities in life and have the money to afford the ridiculously high fees, American educational facilities are very attractive.
Academics looking for the edge of innovation are well suited in many American institutions. News of cuts and changes to the US geographical service and weather service hit the world like a truck because those are areas that the US (and perhaps Russia) excels in, and everyone else has been catching up or cooperating with American programmes.
Don't forget: millions of people have moved to the US illegally, facing risk of deportation and long jail times, being separated from their families. Altering the privacy settings on their Facebook accounts is the least of their worries. Of course, illegal immigrants can't give a rat's ass about the legal requirements to enter the country anyway, but their sheer number shows how much so many people are willing to risk just to partake in US society, even if it's just for manual labour. Plus, that weird thing you guys do where people born within your borders automatically get citizenship is a nice way to ensure somewhat of a nice future for people looking to start a family.
As a tourist, though, things do seem to have shifted. The people coming to America to improve their lives will probably be a lot more persistent in following their dreams compared to the people coming in for leisure, especially when countries like Canada are just as far away. I myself have wanted to save up to see things like Disneyland and Cape Canaveral, but my plans have been on hold ever since the Trump election and I don't think I'll be reconsidering any time soon. From what I've heard in the news from travel agencies, I'm not alone, and my country is one of the more tolerant European countries when it comes to American bullshit.
The stance of the US on illegal inmigration has always been clear, and the process for requesting a B1B2 visa is like a rite of entry where it is made even clearer (interviews, seriousness). My father explained it to me when I was young, I must have thought the process was a bit too harsh, "going to their country is like going to somebody else's home, you need to follow their rules, and it's a privilege not a right, to enter".
From what I read, the rules haven't changed, rather they are being enforced. My perspective as an outsider is that the people that complain are mostly leftist extremist from one of the most left leaning and inmigrant heavy states (CA).
I know a lot of people from my country that consider breaking rules and laws as part of natural life and they see visa rules as some other rule to be broken, lots of people that overstay visitor and business visas to work and live in the states or other countries.
I see these changes in enforcement as positive to me, as they do not restrict me in any way except in false positives, as I was already complying with the law and my visa terms. If anything, I am benefitted, as the benefits that are given to law abiding people are becoming exclusive to those that abide the law, instead of also those that disregard it.
It reminds me of this scene from mad men
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4FC1VU_uO4
The bootlicker ethos thoroughly explained
I think TZubiri was speaking narrowly, of specific rules. And of their personal general law-abiding view, which one can respect.
I think they weren't speaking more broadly, of all the rules, conditions, and actions that currently apply to immigrants.
For example, I imagine they'd be surprised if, obeying all the rules, as far as they knew, they were suddenly grabbed off the street. Would they feel wronged? I don't think they're addressing that in the narrow comments here.
Regarding the part about thinking of themself as a guest, it's unclear at what point they have (in their view) earned additional rights -- by following rules, and contributing to US society -- and can start to think of it as their home, with additional rights and responsibilities, rather than as still only a guest.
Of course, if someone were framing an issue disingenuously, that might rate strong terms, but I'm trying to follow HN guidelines here, of trying to use the best interpretation of what someone said.
It is strong but I thought merited by Tzubiri’s glee at the imposition of more stringent immigration process
I’m also an immigrant and was able to follow through the long process to immigrate to the US
I quote from Tzubiri gp comment:
> The stance of the US on illegal inmigration has always been clear
Obviously not true - as proven by the fact that millions of illegals immigrants are currently employed in the US, pay taxes, can buy homes, have drivers licenses
> From what I read, the rules haven't changed, rather they are being enforced. My perspective as an outsider is that the people that complain are mostly leftist extremist from one of the most left leaning and inmigrant heavy states (CA).
Even president Trump acknowledged the dependence of US businesses on illegal immigrant labor when calling of ICE raids on farms. The most anti-California president elected not to enforce the rules they swore to follow.
> I see these changes in enforcement as positive to me, as they do not restrict me in any way except in false positives, as I was already complying with the law and my visa terms.
The US visa system makes people jump through arbitrary hoops just to stem the flow of foreigners.
Immigrants that follow the rules then come to believe that instead the system accurately measures worthiness
Why are EB3 wait times for India 10+ years but other countries 2 years?
Why did the US cancel the visas of Haiti and Venezuelan workers thus turning them into illegal immigrants overnight
Why were Cuban immigrants granted special status ?
Why are Cubans banned from US visas ?
The bootlicker is because Tzubiri could do everything by the book and still have their country be banned - they don’t know how additional enforcement will affect them or their loved one’s
And false positives based on random things such as tattoos resulting in getting shipped to a concentration camp, with no due process, are positive to you?
I think that's a nice Mad Men scene in some ways. But we can agree that the writer used weak, stoned, strawman hippie characters for dramatic effect, so that Don Draper could be cool and reinforce the character. The closing line was especially smooth, and fit (and burned).
That scene expresses how you feel, and that's one entertaining way to communicate it, and that's fine.
But I hope we all agree that the scene doesn't constitute competent debate of the merits of feeling that way?
Just lasagna pics, birthday cakes, kittens, golden retrievers, baby goats, maybe an artsy photo of a leaf with #blessed.
Everything I can do so that an AI running immigration background checks might match my kids to the profile of a low threat, emotionally well-regulated, consumer-minded citizen material.
Absolutely no pictures of Winnie the Pooh to keep China travel option open too.
I welcome any tips. Someone here must have cracked the code to be completely unremarkable and "wholesome" to governments.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM
Don't go to the US. That's the tip.
My general advice for people travelling to China is to not talk about politics on Chinese social media, or if you do just talk about the domestic politics of your home country & keep in mind that Chinese people might disagree with you. That's also my advice for people travelling to any country, but it's more important in China.
All that said, if you must discuss politics on Chinese social media while you're there, the thing the censors really have an issue with is calls for action, explicit or implied. More than one very pro-PRC heritage speaker who went to China has had their Weibo posts raging against America or Japan censored because they thought the criteria were "Posts have to be pro-China", when really the criteria is "Posts can't be a call to collective action that wasn't started by the party". What the party is actually concerned about is just stopping any sort of organised mass movement that they didn't start. The CCP's point of view is that mass movements are inherently unpredictable & could lead to civil disorder (even if they're nominally "pro-China"), so they're too risky a tool to let anyone other than the state use - important context to that is that Chinese culture, similar to some other East Asian cultures, puts way more value than we do on civil order, harmony etc.
Also if your posts do get censored, it's not as big an issue as it would be here. Where I live, the government deleting my social media posts would feel approximately as serious as armed police rappelling through my windows, and if the former happened I'd at least think about the possibility of the latter happening shortly afterwards. Think something like the Christchurch shooting live feed. It's not like that in China; it's completely normal, for example, that you get angry & post something that gets deleted by a censor, & that is literally the last you ever hear of it, a lot like tweeting something against ToS. If you continue posting about it or try to get around the censorship, eventually a police officer will visit you and talk to you over tea about why you have to stop doing that, and if you keep going that's when the actual legal consequences like deportations or arrest start.
In 2025 if you are a public person saying it you will get consequences. See Hobhouse case.
There are other people like John Cena apologizing for saying something "wrong" in English but no idea if they were threatened by CCP or by their managers
Yes, if your criticism of China is in the news they might not let you in. That doesn't apply to many people but it's still a helpful clarification.
>There are other people like John Cena apologizing for saying something "wrong" in English but no idea if they were threatened by CCP or by their managers
Managers, and the reason isn't out of fear of legal consequences but fear of boycotts. Chinese have often felt like those in the West are talking down to them or being condescending, and they've never in their life had the ability to affect those doing so. Now that people really want access to the Chinese market, it's the first time ever for many Chinese people that they feel they can have any impact on how Westerners talk about China or the Chinese people. As a result (and because China has domestic equivalents of everything), Chinese people can be very boycott happy. The government can stop Chinese people from organising boycotts & very often does so (once again, they have an issue with any sort of mass organising by default), but the government can't force people to buy tickets to John Cena's movies & they didn't view it as appropriate to censor the videos of him screwing up what he meant to say. An organic boycott by the Chinese market is the worst nightmare of a lot of businessmen because the future of their business relies on selling in China, so they'll be even more strict on their people than the Chinese government would to try to avoid that.
Short of time travel, this seems impossible.
I do too, but they won’t let me log in without putting in a phone number.
Now you have to hope that 20 years later people on social networks won't suddenly decide that "golden retrievers" is a dog whistle for something bad, which would make your accounts retroactively problematic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrQyMrmRBsk
DHS, ICE, ... all doing whatever they are told from the new "above the law".
America holds immense leverage when it comes to education, and now it seeks to use that leverage to export control of people's speech, thoughts, and movements abroad.
At least when China does this kinda thing there's not so strong a stench of hypocrisy.
I shittalked the government for a long time and got caught up in the various memes against the country before I decided to visit. I was afraid I'd be rejected (or worse, approved and arrested) and upon googling for similar experiences saw countless people freaking out about the same thing before going there.
Turns out they either don't check at all, or do check but aren't nearly as stringent as the US.
This ignores edge cases of popular Youtubers who lived there for years, made a career out of complaining, then were surprised when the government asked them to leave. Which still beats an El Salvador prison.
He learned the language, bought a house there, got married, and did not want to leave.
But even then, China doesn't stoop to the pathetic level of expending thus kind of soft-power on defending some third power that has managed to get it by the balls.
This kind of thing? When has china demanded access to foreigners' social media accounts so that they can check for anti-israel comments? Never. You think china cares what people say about foreign countries? You think china will block someone from their country because they criticized the US? Of course not. They ban you for criticizing their own country.
You are not appreciating the level of pathetic debasement we are experiencing. We are not checking for anti-american comments from foreigners. We are checking for anti-israel comments. The US government is acting like a guard dog for israel.
Weird that people somehow are making more fuss about showing your social media to authorities than giving away your biometrics.
I'm afraid we're going into a weird timeline where authoritarian figures in power(not just government) are having immense amounts of data for people, and the technology to go through it without much effort. It's a good time(if it's not to late) for everyone who cares about their privacy to start getting as much as possible outside mainstream social media and centralized accounts(google etc)
>The US government has no right searching through it.
Well they just made it a right. What are rights anyway? Rights are not a natural construct, they're whatever the government decides. So if the government decides one thing, tomorrow it can decide another thing if it wants to.
It's not a US issue, every country you will go to can change their rights willy nilly based on the current boogie man: terrorists, COVID, Russia, Iran, right wing "extremists" etc
In the UK or Germany you can be fined, swatted or arrested for tweets and wrong think. Why? Because government made that a right.
I'm guessing you're a US citizen, because this isn't about the US. Many countries in the world are more or less puppies of the US government, it's not like we're living in an isolated world where the decisions of the US government don't apply to others because they're not US citizens. This is showing a general trend, which doesn't concern just visa applications.
What is social about what we're doing here ? I haven't even read your username, I dont care about it, I won't remember you tomorrow, there's nothing social about that, or else we should consider that every single BBS ever was "social" and the word doesn't mean shit anymore
Reddit and 4chan are different from Facebook and Instagram, but they are still social media.
Wikipedia:
> Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the creation, sharing and aggregation of content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongst virtual communities and networks.
The categorization you’re relying on dates back to the early 2010s; it equates social media with Facebook-style platforms centered on a main feed, profiles, connections, messaging, and other ancillary functionality. This was 15 years ago; YouTube doesn’t have a messaging system anymore, but you would probably still consider it to be social media. Most of the reels you see on Instagram are not from accounts that you follow, and hardly anyone uses their real name to post there, so by your definition it would not qualify as social media, but it plainly is.
I’m familiar with the attitude because I see it all over on 4chan, Reddit, and Hacker News. Someone who posts here claiming they don’t use social media is like someone claiming to be a vegan who eats beef; it’s a clout thing among the strange anti-social subcultures that developed on these platforms used to indicate that the user doesn’t use platforms that involve something as shallow as talking about his personal life.
"Sure I exaggerated the privacy risk and hyperbolized my experience but it's because I'm passionate about privacy! I'm not like those losers on Facebook spreading fake news."
They're doing the exact same thing. Pseudonymous and anonymous social networks are also social networks and suffer from the same problems of discourse. The smug "we're not like the normies" attitude often makes this even worse than mainstream social networks, not better.
I’ve always got the sense that this perception was a big reason why Redditors seem to hate Instagram so much. The algorithm does occasionally do some unpleasant things, but 90% of the time it’s great. When I read about people comparing their lives to others and becoming depressed I can’t help but feel like the app might not be the problem.
> Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the creation, sharing and aggregation of content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongst virtual communities and networks.
Forums satisfy all of these requirements. The key factor is not what kind of content users can post but that users can post, and more importantly that they post with the primary intention of interacting with other users. This covers Hacker News and other forums but excludes guest books and contact forms.
The key factor is that a third party has an algorithm that decides what you gets on your feed, based on the content. This is used to feed you ads or occasionally steer the election of the most powerful democracy.
> The key factor is that a third party has an algorithm that decides what you gets on your feed, based on the content.
You are describing Hacker News.
There is a distinct experience and ecosystem that arises from those types of sites that we all recognize, which didn't exist in the same way before the advent of social media sites. And it warrants discussion. When you try to say "actually, technically, ALL human communication is social media!" and won't let it go, you derail a conversation in a way that benefits nobody and is functionally (if not literally at this point) untrue for anyone who's experienced the internet over the last 20 years.
You are describing Reddit.
That should've always been the norm, yet unfortunately it isn't.
Not that that exactly matters to this administration, who is happy to act first and let the courts figure it out never
Non-resident aliens abroad aren't generally considered to be protected by the First Amendment, so denying someone a visa before they enter the US based on speech may be Constitutionally ok.
Deporting people already in the US because of speech is a different matter.
https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/
The Supreme Court hasn't said much, but in United States v. Verdugo-Urquidez plurality opinion by Rehnquist held that the rights of "the people" protected by the Fourth Amendment (written similarly) does not extend outside the United States to aliens abroad as they are not a "class of persons who are part of a national community or ... have otherwise developed sufficient connection with this country to be considered part of that community."
This is how normalization of deviance works on a bureaucratic administrative legal scale. One administration, with just a mildly lackadaisical attitude about staying within the bounds of things like rights, laws, legality and so forth, stretches what's legally allowed or normal just a bit, here and there, only to be followed by another more or less reasonable administration that does it a bit more. Then however, you might get a less common but not extremely rare administration that simply doesn't give a tin shit about anything resembling legality insofar as it thinks it can get away with it, and all those previous deviations are aggressively pried into and expanded as much as possible.
This is why it's important to fight deviations of respect for individual legal rights and constitutional boundaries even when they're small, committed by administrations you otherwise largely respect. You simply don't know who will come along later, or how much political tendencies will change over time having been already given ever more free rein to do so illegally.
Then on the other hand, there is also that large subset of the population that, as long as a particular administration shares its ideological fixations, simply doesn't care about legality or deviations from constitutional responsibility.
On the contrary, they'll actively bark for their new leaders to break the rules as much as possible against anything they don't like. They're idiots for doing this of course, because it can very easily bite them right back in the ass later, but try explaining that when rational discourse goes down the drain in favor of dogmas.
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=3376
Historically visas could and were denied for completely arbitrary reasons.
The right to free speech. Even in its restrictive First Amendment form.
Once they're in the country, sure.
----
Not that I think it's been demonstrated that this policy will improve US security or etc. Wonder if the APA applies here.
some people only consider their in-groups as worthy of having rights.
others consider all human beings as worthy of having rights.
you see that schism in play everyday almost everywhere. i fear it is not a resolvable tension (without some kind of mass severe brainwashing). it is a core beliefs kind of thing.
But the First Amendment does apply to the many US citizens and permanent residents who are being indirectly surveilled, profiled, and chilled in their speech as a result of the extra scrutiny of the foreign visa applicants with whom they interact and connect on social media.
Textually, it does. (The President acts without force of law when he restricts “freedom of expression.”)
Intent-wise, for those seeking entry to America, it does—our republic was formed, in part, to restrict the executive from excluding religious minorities he doesn’t liked
Legally, however, you are right.
Is this true? My understanding is that the 1A has been understood by SCOTUS as a restriction on government power to influence speech, _not_ as a right granted to individuals.
You can point out that the constitution is for Americans only etc. etc.
The thing is, that the right to free speech, as defended by court cases and by precedence, is about the market place of ideas being functional, and allowing society to figure out what it considers “true”.
This is the spirit of the clause, and the purpose behind the freedoms Americans enjoy and used to uphold.
The reading that it applies “only to American citizens, and visitors on US soil”, is an after the fact reinterpretation to win arguments online.
Free speech in America has always been about the government not being able to decide what can and can’t be said, especially when it comes down to deciding which nations can and can’t be spoken about.
Your argument, can only be built on the ruins of the American free speech experiment. Because it accepts the death of the spirit of the idea, the a marketplace of ideas as a way to address the unknowns of reality, with a centralized, and enforced way of safe topics.
For what its worth, you only reach this level of banana republic, after your information and idea markets are compromised or overwhelmed.
I’m simply pointing out that your argument on procedural merits, takes the spirit of the law to the back of the shed, and shoots it.
But haven been through the system and being an American my whole life and understanding America, I would say no I didn’t see anything special about my education.
nothing particularly note worthy and in fact, I have a long list of criticisms. especially tenured professors, professors that don’t speak English very well, and then actually just horrible professors.
Curriculum wise, yes many universities can have fairly cutting edge curriculums but that’s not something we have a monopoly over.
And let’s not talk about the price.
Also, I had quite a few foreign exchange students that I’ve interacted with through throughout the years, whether at school or other places. And more often than not in the cs majors, I would say that they were ahead.
Also, pleasantly surprised to see this not immediately flagged off the front page. Of late, the flagging has been particularly trigger happy.
Edit: Even if it weren't for that, non-citizens do not have any rights and are not protected by the constitution or anything else.
Also, as a foreigner, it doesn't really matter what rights you may or may not have when people at the border have broad power to reject your attempted entry. Unless you're willing to try a legal battle, you'll be forever marked as "refused entry" in the US government systems, which is one of the many flags you need to clear to even get a VISA. I wouldn't trust the country that deports legal immigrants or just plain citizens without due process to care much about your right to remain silent.
I think it's been pretty well-known that the US government will track your social media activity by any means it can anyway. Setting everything to public makes it easier for the courts (after all, no need to admit to secret spying when everything is set to public) but I think it'd be an illusion to think the government doesn't have access to this data anyway. Or perhaps this is just a grift so more private companies can start scraping social media as a business model around immigration control.
The most interesting change here is that they're targeting people criticizing Israel's ongoing genocide of Palestinians specifically.
The gaming quality on yt and twitch can be measured with ai to check if you are not pretending. The immigration interview full of questions about grand theft auto.
HN born as a place for founders to pretend to be civilized and knowledgable can extend to cover everyone. I mean, I wouldnt give a visum to the guy writing this comment.
As other pointed out, border control is already an area where an agent can stop basically anyone without any provable justification. More that this specific rule, the whole social climate needs to change to ever get back to a balanced situation.
For instance I don't have any current instagram, facebook, or tiktok account and my old accounts including the google ones I have used sporadically have always been using generated names[1] but there are a fair number of other people having my real name , how would the US government know I am not hiding by keeping one of those profiles private?
Bottom line: I will never apply for a US Visa and by losing all atractivity to foreign talents and only accept keeping its interbreed assholes this country is completely doomed.
[1] it is quite funny to have whole families from Iceland or Tanzania trying to connect to you because your has their last name.
Then they include in the violation bundle they sell to State.
Today - visa interviews, tomorrow - citizens in the US.
Went to a No Kings rally? Ooops, -2000 points, now you can’t board a plane.
And now I can’t get a visa :(
(The way your credit score is designed is nether common nor normal outside of the US. And is a strange concept to anyone else as well. It's not much off an social score for the poor as it looks from the outside)
Maybe, but it's a bit like extending the concept of a grenade to a nuclear bomb. The amount of the 'concept' applied matters substantially.
Cruz stated similar to "I was taught at a young age that the bible says whoever helps Israel will be blessed by God and those that don't anger god".
Tucker, a Christian, asked where in the bible it said this as he had no recollection of such. Cruz didn't know.
Turns out it doesn't even say as such in the bible.
This is brainwashing at a very young age that has been going on for decades.
As with all things in the bible, it's meaning is subject to interpretation, and I won't attempt to argue for one interpretation vs another. Just putting it out there as some additional context.
Also, that verse is from the torah, not the christian bible ( new testament ). It is fundamentally meaningless to christianity as the verses in the quran are.
It's hilarious how people like cruz cherry-pick passages from the old testament. The torah also has quite interesting things to say about homosexuality (death penalty by stoning), slavery (legal) and women's rights (none). What's cruz's views on these topics.
Also, wouldn't this just incentivize desperate people to buy fake online accounts that were built over a long period just for this purpose?
On the other hand, maybe this will lead to people putting less stuff on social media. This would probably be a net positive.
Sorry, I know there's still good people there too.
It will take many good administrations to get that trust back. Especially the tariff attacks on US allies basically told us anyone can be elected at any time and throw a wrench in global trade. The amount of decoupling that's started here is huge.
These things take time to materialise so it's not obvious yet. But once the EU has alternatives for things it needs the US for (eg big cloud) why ever switch back?
Also the "buy European" movement sprung up out of nowhere and grew massively.
Trump will hopefully be a blip but the waves will be felt for years to come.
Else it becomes impractical to travel securely!
Just like Turkey huh? Love that America is still called the “land of the free”
https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2025/3/20/turkiye-detains...
When they refused Trump started trying to force the to comply.
They're already trying to reach the same thought police type activity with American students.
That said, this isn't a search. It is the presumption of guilt if a search is refused. I agree with you that it's bad policy, but it's not unconstitutional.
0 - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_search_exception
Maybe you're better example is the Trump administration saying it's going to withhold transportation funding from cities because citizens their dared to protest him, issued presidential orders against law firms that represented people suing him, pulled the security clearances of people who dared to say that the 2020 election was not stolen, and threatened trees and charges against a former DHS official who wrote an unflattering op-ed in the Washington Post.
One of these is not like the other
The Supreme Court threw out the case.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c100l6jrjvno
The Twitter files were a nothing burger
I hope we can finally let all that propaganda of 'freedom' and 'free speech' go to rest now.
Genuinely, have people been living in Bikini Bottom? I'm so tired of this cognitive dissonance, not wanting to face the reality. As tired as I am of these developments themselves, really. I'm too tired to still be nice. I thought people here were bright.
I've hypothesized that for as much as I'll always resist it, authoritarianism is an inevitable, predictable result of social complexity and volatility, two factors that are unprecedentedly shaping humanity.
Elites just want it, lowbrow bureaucrats know no other way, and the ever divided plebs, unwilling or unable to actively engage in intelligent mitigation themselves, will either collectively touch their toes or wake up one day to a new and improved boardgame with very strict and uncomfortable rules.
Something many seem to slough off, is the extreme, manifold volatility underlying society, from environmental factors to technological, political, economic, social, epic crisis, etc, and even the remaining mysteries of the human id. All scarcely prepared for and recreationally sneezed at.
I don't see how it's not abundantly clear that as myriad people of influence scramble for their own brands of order, or a single one in this thinly veiled bedlam we call society, that severe constriction isn't imminent. Regardless of Red or Blue; Independent being inconceivable presumably for reasons of exceedingly advanced rationale.
I think an ephemeral golden age (for those who've been on the better scented end of the stick) is ending with an exponential tempo.
Grim but pragmatic.
The Palantir project will likely evolve to suck data directly from Meta, Gmail, X, Reddit and the systems of other US companies to create profiles based on non-public data (likes, DMs, deleted posts, comments, etc.)
This will be feed to LLMs to create a whole personality profile, including political leanings.
They know exactly what they are doing.
Should they get the chance, their intention to repeat October 7th has been clearly stated - it's in their charter. What does anyone do under those circumstances? For those who argue that Israel is an illegitimate State, I guess the practical question is where should the 9.5 million colonialist Israelis move to? And who would accept them?
"There shall be no recognition of the legitimacy of the Zionist entity". https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hamas-2017-document-full
Hamas was specifically funded by Netanyahu to prevent a 2SS:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-years-netanyahu-propped-up...
And he weakened the moderates on purpose. So what we need to do is the opposite of Netanyahu's strategy - empower the moderates, move towards a 2SS and sanction/isolate/disempower Hamas and similar.
It’s always been authoritarian for those that don’t look right
America also made efforts to recognize that those events counted as screwups and failures of their own value systems, and struggled against the forces that allowed such situations to happen.
This isn’t to say they succeeded, or that these situations wouldn’t happen again.
Its to say that theres a difference between pushing against the current, and flowing with it.
* https://boltsmag.org/threats-to-voting-rights-act-section-2/
There are numerous other examples but an increased inability to complain about unfair and discrimmanatory voting practices highlights the present direction of 'progress'.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ky%C5%ABj%C5%8D_incident
They were fanatical and willing to fight to the last man.
When you have two parties in control, and they are both staunchly pro-capital, anti-worker parties, one party will push conservative and the other will ensure "nothing fundamentally changes".
Obama, Biden, Bush, and Clinton all had parts to play in empowering the executive, normalizing political violence, demonizing and silencing the left (the actual left -- socialists, workers parties, anarchists, etc.), and ramping up the militarization of the police.
This isn't some sudden moment, it might be the first time it's affected people you know, but this has been happening for awhile now.
Not sure it’s gonna happen time though.
I want more people out here who are willing to vote (or withold their vote) for a candidate based on the policy positions. This "Vote Blue No Matter Who" (or whatever the Republican equivalent is) mindset leads to candidates who don't have to hold coherent positions or perform their duties. They simply need to not be the other guy.
While being "not the other guy" they will get courted by capital interests, because they need that money to run their campaigns. It's really not hard to connect the dots between these politicians and the donors who buy them and mysteriously get policies that make regulatory capture and capital concentration easier. It's not even conspiratorial -- it's pretty much out in the open these days.
I'm so tired of hearing, "But not the democrats" or "but not the republicans" -- my friends, stop treating the people you vote for like part of your identity. Expect more from the people who represent you, be harshly critical of your own party to help it grow.
In 1985, France launched a terrorist attack against a protest in New Zealand.
You are free to say whatever you like, as long as your words do not contradict Official Party Ideology.
“There is freedom of speech, but I cannot guarantee freedom after speech.” ― Idi Amin
All that said, nobody has a "right" to come to the USA to study. It's something we allow, for a lot of good reasons, but there are doubtless a small number of people that we would not want here.
Would you be ok with that social media poster being granted entry into the country?
Do I trust the government to police opinions? No, especially when there's no accountability and appeals process.
Do I believe the overall benefits that harassment-free international travel brings to this country outweigh the costs of letting in some visitors whose views I disagree with? Yes.
However, countries may, depending on their laws, choose to not let certain people in on conditions that would otherwise violate guarantees on freedom of speech etc.
However, you do have your constitutional rights at the border etc. There is an exception concerning searches.
There are a lot of times the government is limited even dealing with foreigners abroad (in legal theory anyways, ymmv in reality).
https://www.twz.com/air/department-of-homeland-security-q-9-...
So no, there is no restriction on going to another state to get an abortion.
and even if legal, people having an out-of-state abortion are being sued. that alone is a big restriction, because what good is a right if you don't have the means to defend yourself when that right is being challenged.
But not everyone can just come to the US, and looking at what they've said is part of deciding whether they can.
"Therefore any country is allowed to investigate you" What for thought crimes?
Bootlicking levels are off the charts here. Theres nothing reasonable about investigating someones social media history, especially because opinions change over time. I dont want to see people in immigration detention because of a decade old social media post. This is the kind of behaviour that we used to criticise failed states for. "Its not safe for you to travel to syria because you gave a talk about human rights abuses of the assad regime" etc.
Americans rightly criticised Australia for preventing americans with wonky ideas from traveling to Australia.
Why is this view suddenly being normalised now that America wants to implement it?
If you're applying for a visa it's because you don't have the right to enter. Not only is there no reason to apply for a visa if you already have the right to enter, it's usually illegal to do so.
> Theres nothing reasonable about investigating someones social media history, especially because opinions change over time. I dont want to see people in immigration detention because of a decade old social media post. This is the kind of behaviour that we used to criticise failed states for. "Its not safe for you to travel to syria because you gave a talk about human rights abuses of the assad regime" etc.
The US has always been unreasonable at the border. Nothing is changing there sadly.
Really hinges on how you use the word "right". There's plenty of people in Gaza that have a right to return to their homes, but are unable to thanks to some dicks with tanks and a big wall.
There are plenty of people worldwide who are unable to enter countries when they have an established right to. Like I said. "How do you know"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_return
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_movement
>The US has always been unreasonable
True.
If a country thinks a place that you have a right to be, is that country, it doesn't diminish your right to be there.
Like for the right of return, it doesn't matter what flag is flapping in the wind, the refugees have an equal right to return to their homes. Its actually the missing link in most discussions about Israel. They could have their single state solution with literally zero fanfare if they just let everyone return to their land. The issue is that they have settled other people on that land in the mean time, and ultimately their goal has always been settlement. So they have to resist the return of those refugees.
Trump administration has already made demands to monitor US students for "viewpoint diversity" and adjust admissions accordingly ...
Non-native English speakers are not only welcome on HN, we're in awe of how good their English is. Most of us only wish we had any French, German, Hindi, etc. at all. So please feel free to write as you write.
Edit: ok, that's enough. We've banned the account.
https://www.hackerneue.com/item?id=44254450 (June 2025)
https://www.hackerneue.com/item?id=44253910 (June 2025)
https://www.hackerneue.com/item?id=43801306 (April 2025)
https://www.hackerneue.com/item?id=27656479 (June 2021)
https://www.hackerneue.com/item?id=21908459 (Dec 2019)
https://www.hackerneue.com/item?id=19477912 (March 2019)
https://www.hackerneue.com/item?id=19471419 (March 2019)
https://www.hackerneue.com/item?id=18127248 (Oct 2018)
https://www.hackerneue.com/item?id=17892645 (Sept 2018)
https://www.hackerneue.com/item?id=15958487 (Dec 2017)
Pity to lose such a great username, but not destroying the community is more important.
The bit you added here was “99% of people from my country broke visa conditions”.
This is something that is added by you, to make it make sense. What you are unaware of, is that the current visa process already accounts for this. I know of people who had visas rejected, because freelancer with their own training business are counted as flight risks. They get rejected at the interview stage itself. And it seems that wait times for tourists visas are years long.
Now, you might be the kind of person, who by nature either tries to see the good in something, or takes a contrarian position. The question is, did you dive beneath the ice with knowledge of what arguments are too far?
The more information given, the more likely there will be a false positive.
"You say you didn't visit the US but here's a picture of you in Vegas." "That's the Eiffel Tower. In Paris." "No, it's Las Vegas - I saw it last month. Entry rejected."
no I don't consider US border officers to be a risk in my threat model. I'm more concerned about dying from what I post, whether by a junta or kidnapping thieves. I personally wouln't care much other than perhaps suing for a refund of the flight .
If I'm denied entry because of something I said, it's not the end of the world, I would at most sue for a flight refund.
The more information the government (or anyone else with power over you) has, the higher the chance of false positives and of confusing correlation with causation. It's not like they will have a crack team of auditors review everything.
If you are arrested and conveyed to a foreign torture jail because an AI scanning your social media posts hallucinated that you are an international gang member, then it's also not the end of the world.
I don't understand why so many people who hate the US to it's core want to live there. E.g., Ilhan Omar: "the US is one of the worst countries".
[0]: https://youtu.be/7CSD5UbE77w?t=28