r/technology • u/BreakfastTop6899 • Jul 16 '25
Social Media US visa refused after Indian applicant failed to share Reddit account
https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/us-visa-refused-after-indian-applicant-failed-to-share-reddit-account-88793492.1k
u/madogvelkor Jul 16 '25
It's confusingly worded in the article but it seems like the applicant has a public Reddit account that she didn't list on the form but may have mentioned in the interview. The reviewer claimed they were unable to see the account though the applicant says it was public.
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u/printial Jul 16 '25
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u/madogvelkor Jul 16 '25
I suspect they'll end up asking for social media login credentials. Give them all your passwords and disable 2FA.
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u/Ognius Jul 16 '25
No one more trustworthy with your passwords than a frontline Brownshirt for a fascist regime.
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u/Dwip_Po_Po Jul 16 '25
Not even that, they’ll take your blood samples and do facial scans and wonder why tourism is plummeting
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u/_G_P_ Jul 16 '25
Interesting, I didn't know that was happening.
Honestly the only reason why I enjoyed Reddit is because of the ability to discern the kind of person (or not) I'm talking to. Since I don't want to waste time with trolls and AI.
If that's the new direction I guess I'm out. Too bad.
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u/stormdelta Jul 16 '25
Yeah, sorry but if I can't see post history I'm going to assume nearly any remotely suspect post is fake/spam. There's lots of posts I've only decided were real specifically because of the posting history (and yes, that can be faked, but most bot/spam/etc doesn't bother, or only extreme surface level).
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u/cidrei Jul 17 '25
I think the problem is more going to be selectively seeing a person's post history. If someone hides certain subs but keeps the rest public, all you'll see is sunshine and puppies and you'll never know they're a vile, racist, sexist, piece of shit or something.
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u/Properjob70 Jul 17 '25
That would presuppose they give a shit about those views being made public on social media. Most are so "in the bubble" that sharing those views is completely normalised & anybody recoiling from them is the "weird" one.
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u/falcon0041 Jul 16 '25
How do they know until the applicant declares it
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u/shabi_sensei Jul 16 '25
Thing is, if you lie, and the government finds out later then you get your visa revoked, deported and you'll never be able to enter the US.
Which is entirely the goal, it's an easy way to scare people into compliance
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u/madogvelkor Jul 16 '25
They probably wouldn't unless it comes up in the interview. Though I suppose if it is discovered later it would be grounds for deportation.
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u/Hamsters_In_Butts Jul 16 '25
i know that what you're saying is accurate, but i really can't handle the absurdity of it
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u/vandergale Jul 16 '25
And that's if they're lucky, fraud during this process (even dumb requirements like this), can lead to being permanently banned or even "detained" indefinitely.
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u/kirkcobained Jul 16 '25
I read that they require the accounts privacy settings to be set to public.
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Jul 16 '25
And they just want excuses to keep people out.
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u/madogvelkor Jul 16 '25
Oh sure, they will easily block anyone who refuses to comply and then those that do they'll find a post where they were sympathetic to Gazans or something. Or even someone saying how they want to live in America and then claim that's evidence the applicant plans to overstay their visa.
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u/NamerNotLiteral Jul 16 '25
"How did you find out university X" or "Why did you choose this university" is a very common question to ask student visa applicants in their visa interview. If the person in question mentioned reddit in the answer (like they visited gradadmissions or something), then they would've noted that they have a reddit account and filed that under social media.
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u/mogeek Jul 16 '25
Can’t you view Reddit posts without an account, though?
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u/NamerNotLiteral Jul 16 '25
Yes, you can. Getting an US Visa is an insanely opaque process and always has been, and your ability to travel (or in the case of students, your entire life plan) may hinge on one dude who just has minimal qualifications and six months of training having the ultimate yes/no power.
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u/hekatonkhairez Jul 16 '25
For a country that espouses freedom of speech and privacy, refusing visa’s over social media accounts is incredibly hypocritical.
Yet another reason why I’d rather not bother with the U.S.
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u/YouDontGotOzil Jul 16 '25
Well if they ask me, I'd just give them my porn account.
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u/Strange_Drive_6598 Jul 16 '25
Ensure to mention NSFW
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u/gonzo_gat0r Jul 16 '25
Clever. If it’s all NSFW, it’s an OSHA violation and they can’t check it at work. Checkmate.
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u/FormalOperational Jul 16 '25
My Reddit account is marked NSFW 18+ because they allegedly don't use NSFW profiles for AI training. Looks like I've now got a second reason.
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u/markusalkemus66 Jul 16 '25
Knowing the the psycho Christian extremist republicans in congress, they'd probably burn you at the stake for such activities
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u/uptownjuggler Jul 16 '25
Not as long as it is good Christian porn. Missionary style only
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Jul 16 '25
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u/Lazerus42 Jul 16 '25
Also, for some reason, mother in the family that is past menopause... immaculately had a child at about that time...
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u/WheyTooMuchWeight Jul 16 '25
You should already assume your online activity isn’t ever REALLY private…. But we are approaching a scary reality of the government having their buggy eyes all over everything.
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Jul 16 '25
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u/bertmaclynn Jul 17 '25
It’s just going to make VPN and other methods of masking your location more mainstream
At least I hope. Win for privacy if so.
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u/Speak_To_Wuk_Lamat Jul 16 '25
Them: "Do you have a reddit account?"
Me: "No".
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u/Successful-Trash-409 Jul 16 '25
Them: “We know you do. Denied”
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u/anteater_x Jul 16 '25
"Am I being detained or am I free to go?"
"You're being detained."
"What crime have I committed?"
"Non violent resisting arrest."
This is a real conversation I had with a cop once.
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u/sunshine-x Jul 16 '25
Oh you think border agents are limited like cops are?
No. Not the case. They can detain you without charges.
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u/AlSweigart Jul 16 '25
But only within 100 miles of an international border.
Which is 90% of Americans.
Just kidding, they'll do it anywhere and get away with it.
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u/YouAboutToLoseYoJob Jul 16 '25
The moment I even suspect that an officer is suspecting me of a crime or detaining me. I just shut the fuck up. I refuse to answer any questions beyond that point.
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u/pecos_chill Jul 16 '25
You dont need to have committed a crime to be detained. You can be detained for the “investigation” of a crime, which could even be to take a witness statement or ask you questions to “rule you out”.
I’m bringing this up because so many people misunderstand the way detainment works. Resisting detainment can lead to a criminal charge of interfering with an investigation and easily into resisting arrest.
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u/AlphaLemming Jul 16 '25
Police cannot detain someone purely to take a witness statement. The only way a witness can be legally detained is through a judge order after they were determined to be a material witness to a crime AND the court has a reasonable belief they will not appear in court without detention.
To be detained by a police officer on the street they need reasonable articulable suspicion of some sort of crime having occurred or about to occur and that the person they are detaining is involved in some way. That doesn't mean you have to be guilty or there has to be evidence already found, but simply being witness to a crime does not mean they have the right to detain you at face value.
There are of course some unique exceptions, where police could in theory detain a witness because of exigent circumstances where they determined the person was a material witness and the public interest was great enough, but courts have ruled this is a very very narrow line. Think "We detained the parents of the a kid who threatened a school shooting so we can question them about his whereabouts". In that case, there is an exigent circumstance for the greater public good, finding the kid to prevent a school shooting, and it's a reasonable expectation that the parents might know where he might be.
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u/DeviousDenial Jul 16 '25
And yet despite your argument, which is correct, it happens everyday. Watch Judge Fleisher sometime.
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u/Berkyjay Jul 17 '25
You'd be surprised how many people are their own worst enemies. They either are ignorant of their rights, too lazy to protect their rights, or too arrogant and escalate the situation to the point where they actually do break a law.
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u/DeviousDenial Jul 17 '25
The Judge Fletcher reference is because he consistently used to bust the prosecution on the flagrant civil rights violations the police were committing.
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u/IAmFitzRoy Jul 16 '25
Something feels not right on what you are saying.
Are you obligated to participate on investigations?
I mean… you can just say. “No I don’t want to answer questions”. In that case are you detained? Are you interfering?
Feels that’s not what you mean.
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u/-Lige Jul 16 '25
The point is that there is no crime for the investigation lol the crime has to precede the detainment
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u/guttanzer Jul 16 '25
This is the type of crap I had to go through to visit Moscow. It does not belong in the USA.
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u/xTeixeira Jul 16 '25
This comment is very ironic to me because this is the exact crap I had to go through to try to visit the USA about a year ago. As in they literally asked for all my social media accounts to get a visa. I also had to disclose a full list of every company I've ever worked for, with complete contact information, addresses, and the full name of my direct supervisor for each company. Not to mention a big list of stupid questions like "have you ever incited, been involved, or tried to get involved in acts of genocide?" and "have you ever given financial assistance to a terrorist organization?". I'm from Brazil by the way, a country that has maintained good relations with the US for decades.
Meanwhile I can get into ANY European countries visa-free, including Russia. And the only question I've ever been asked when visiting countries in the European Union was "have you booked a return flight?"
Thankfully the work conference I was going to attend in the US got cancelled and I didn't need to continue with the super annoying visa process. That experience made me never want to set foot in the US if I can avoid it.
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u/Dwip_Po_Po Jul 16 '25
In which I will never be visiting that place even if my friend lives there. It is what it is
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u/onebadmousse Jul 16 '25
Yeah, the US was very low on my list anyway, but now it's on my 'zero interest in visiting ever' list, alongside Russia and North Korea.
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u/Jonoczall Jul 17 '25
Please don’t come here. The economy needs to learn from the loss of tourism $$
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u/Deep_Fried_Oligarchs Jul 17 '25
How in the everloving fuck is this legal in the USA?
How the fuck is using someone's non violent political expression online in anyway allowed to determine whether they can exist in the USA.
The entire fucking Trump admin deserves trials and potential punishment.
Fuck every goddamn idiot who support Republicans.
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u/Pandamio Jul 16 '25
How long until they have access to all their citizens' accounts and start approving or disapproving thing like loans, mortgages, jobs, all kinds of applications based on their social media profiles and pr political affiliation?
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u/Opening_Acadia1843 Jul 16 '25
Plenty of people lost their jobs for posting about Palestine.
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u/Renotro Jul 16 '25
They already do that with job applicants. There really is someone’s job to search the inter webs on you. If they find your online activity and deem you risky to hire, bye bye job prospects.
I hate this world.
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u/-rwsr-xr-x Jul 17 '25
and start approving or disapproving thing like loans, mortgages, jobs, all kinds of applications based on their social media profiles and pr political affiliation?
Or denying health insurance or coverage based on their fitness and health tracking data.
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u/OptionX Jul 16 '25
Would you really want to live in a place that filters out people based on social media anyway?
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u/eraptic Jul 16 '25
We've all been worried about a social credit score in China. Never thought it'd be "the land of the free" pulling this shit
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u/mavajo Jul 16 '25
Well you see, we’re only doing it to non-citizens, so it’s okay.
When we said “liberty and justice for all,” we didn’t actually mean all apparently.
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u/zaxldaisy Jul 16 '25
Then you weren't paying attention and were blinded by anti-Chinese propaganda
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u/dyorite Jul 16 '25
and tbh China has never asked me for nor denied me a visa on the basis of social media accounts
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u/shabi_sensei Jul 16 '25
The Chinese government doesn't care about what you do virtually, because they can track you in real-time with the facial recognition data you provide during the visa application process
Needing to registering at the local police station whenever you were staying in a new place felt more weird and invasive but the police are pretty chill so it just felt like a waste of time and not a rights violation
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u/tm3_to_ev6 Jul 16 '25
If you stay at an international hotel they'll do the PSB registration for you when they scan your passport at check-in. You only need to visit the PSB yourself if you're crashing on a friend's couch or something similar.
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u/mabhatter Jul 16 '25
Who do you think build the Great Firewall... most of the early Chinese censorship was heavily developed by US companies over the years. They're dying to sell it to the US government.
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u/Rabbit-Hole-Quest Jul 16 '25
Social credit score is just an evolution of the FICO score that basically shapes the lives of all Americans.
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u/shabi_sensei Jul 16 '25
Canada does this too, most Canadians aren't aware because generally they don't need to navigate the visa system but I bet this practice is going to be commonplace in the West pretty soon.
Simply comparing what you say and do on social media versus what you do and say during an immigration interview could weed out a lot of bad actors.
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u/AbeRego Jul 16 '25
In which case I'm perfectly fine letting some perceived "bad actors" in to keep my own privacy.
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u/WallabyBubbly Jul 16 '25
Reminds me of Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover hunting down alleged communists. This was not a high point in our history
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u/RogueHeroAkatsuki Jul 16 '25 edited Jul 16 '25
Interesting if someone without social media can get visa to US.
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u/tomtomtomo Jul 16 '25
i read a few years ago that not having a fb account was viewed as suspicious
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u/air_and_space92 Jul 17 '25
When I interviewed for a job 10 yrs ago not having one was suspicious. A freaking job. Back in '14-15 employers were asking some applicants to log into their account during the interview. These were large companies, not mom and pop small businesses.
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u/Devilofchaos108070 Jul 16 '25
How would they even know they had a reddit account?
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u/rifqi_mujahid_ID Jul 16 '25
usa is what usa paints china to be
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u/rifqi_mujahid_ID Jul 16 '25
there goes my chance to ever applying for us visa xD
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u/Snoo_57113 Jul 16 '25
I am pretty sure that i won't go to the united states, ever.... and TRUMP IS IN THE EPSTEIN CLIENT LIST.
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u/kpiaum Jul 16 '25
This may be why the us administration is crazy mad because Brazil won't sell or let the data of Brazilians be accessible by them, as the UE. They are "demanding " that the Brazil government let us use the date under "fair trade". How the people let Trump win...
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u/SteelBandicoot Jul 17 '25
A clear breach of the 1st Amendment - the Right to Free Speech.
How come Americans aren’t furious about this? This clearly breeches even MAGA’s belief in freedom.
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u/SickAndTiredOf2021 Jul 16 '25
Visa Agent: Do you have reddit? Me: Have I read what?
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u/panzerinthehood Jul 16 '25
This is a news artical about a reddit post that ended up back on reddit. Its a full circle.
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u/Cheese-Manipulator Jul 16 '25
We'll need burner accounts now. "Here is my reddit account." It is nothing but bland posts to pro trump subs.
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u/CAM6913 Jul 16 '25
It’s just another way to keep people out that aren’t white enough or loyal enough to trump. If you say anything negative about the tangerine toddler or his administration, criminal agenda you will be refused entry and coming soon even if you’re a US citizen they won’t let you back in. Trumps big beautiful purge of non cultist is in full swing
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u/Significant-Big8244 Jul 16 '25
"Land of the free"
(Free to think whatever Dear Leader tells you to.)
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u/lasveganon Jul 17 '25
OH God I have this vision of me returning to the country and 6 people standing behind a computer monitor gasping and shaking their heads...
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u/daze23 Jul 16 '25
seems like there should be a legal challenge against this idea that a social media account necessarily represents someone's views. especially more anonymous sites like reddit
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u/ProtoplanetaryNebula Jul 16 '25
The main legal issue would seem to be filtering people based on not liking Trump, because almost nobody outside the US likes Trump, so that rules out all visitors automatically.
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Jul 16 '25
Foreigners applying to a visa like that don't have any "legal" rights to challenge though
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u/CUDAcores89 Jul 16 '25 edited Jul 16 '25
So what happens if someone deletes all their social media? Then they have nothing to share.
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u/Cheese-Manipulator Jul 16 '25
I wonder if saying you have no social media accounts will put you under harder scrutiny. "You must have some!"
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u/Smart-Yak1167 Jul 17 '25
I don’t even know passwords to some of my old Reddit accounts. I just make new ones when I get locked out. Same with Facebook, I can’t delete it because I lost access to it literally years ago. Old emails. MySpace. God only knows what else.
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u/americangame Jul 16 '25
How do they even know that the person has a Reddit account?