US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says lack of social-media profile could prompt visa denial

WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Marco Rubio on May 30 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.

Mr Rubio’s cable, sent to embassies worldwide, marked the latest salvo by the Trump administration against Harvard, the foreign students who go there, and elite universities more broadly.

He said the procedure spelt out in the document would serve as a pilot for the future days after he

halted interviews for student visas

to consider ways to weed out applicants deemed to pose possible risks to US national security.

The May 30 cable ordered the new vetting procedures for all foreigners who want to visit Harvard, including “prospective students, students, faculty, employees, contractors, guest speakers and tourists”. The Trump administration had earlier sought to

bar Harvard from accepting any foreign students

– a decision that was

blocked by the courts

. 

The cable orders consular officers to scrutinise the social media profiles of potential applicants and order them to switch their social media accounts to public so that interviewers can see what is in them. The absence of online posts could be used against them, Mr Rubio said.

“Consular officers should consider whether the lack of any online presence, or having social media accounts restricted to ‘private’ or with limited visibility, may be reflective of evasiveness,” he added. 

Reuters reported the existence of the latest cable earlier on May 30.

The State Department declined to comment on May 30.

It was the latest broadside in an ongoing clash between the White House and Harvard that has morphed into a larger attack over the role of US higher education.

The campaign has alarmed lawyers and free-speech advocates, who argue that Mr Rubio’s attack on people’s views may violate their rights.

“It seems a little bit like a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation,” said Mr Greg Lukianoff, president and chief executive of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which defends freedom of speech on college campuses.

He wrote an article published on May 30 in The Atlantic that described the administration’s actions against Harvard as “egregious and unconstitutional”.

“I hadn’t actually thought about the idea that if you post on social media and you say things the government doesn’t like, you can be in trouble – but also if you conspicuously don’t or try to keep them private, you can also be in trouble,” he said.

Ms Sofia Cope, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said penalising a would-be foreign student or visitor for not being active on social media or keeping their online presence shielded from the public is an outrageous overreach by the administration.

International students accounted for 5.9 per cent of the total US higher education population of almost 19 million. In the 2023-2024 school year, more than 1.1 million foreign students came to the US, with India sending the most, followed by China. 

Vetting foreign students for visas is already a rigorous process, requiring applicants to prove strong academic credentials, financial means, ties to their own country and the intent to return home after graduation, according to Mr David Leopold, a Cleveland-based immigration lawyer. BLOOMBERG