The Big Story 

The Trump administration is increasingly turning to social media as a national security tool to vet immigrants, stoking concerns the move could have a chilling effect on political speech in the U.S. 

© Matt Cardy, Getty Images

The State Department announced last week it is restarting interviews and processing foreign student visas, and applicants will now be required to make their social media accounts public for vetting or face potential denial. 

The agency said it is looking for those “who pose a threat to U.S. national security,” but critics say the criteria is broad and blurs the line between national surveillance and public expression, especially on private social media accounts.  

“This is new, it’s unprecedented,” said Greg Nojeim, the senior counsel and director of the Security and Surveillance Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology.  

“It’s never before been the case that a person who had set their social media account to private would have to set it to public in order to be admitted to the United States,” he said.  

The U.S. government has expanded its monitoring of social media over the past decade, but the Trump administration’s latest focus on student visas marks a new escalation of this practice.  

Social media checks have “become more pervasive and ideologically driven over time,” the think tank Brennan Center for Justice wrote in a report this year.  

Under the new guidance, visa applicants will be required to list all social media usernames or handles of every platform they used in the past five years, the spokesperson said. Omission of social media information could result in denial or ineligibility for future visas.  

It is not clear the specific content State Department consular officers will be looking for, though some believe the change comes amid the Trump administration’s recent arrests of pro-Palestinian campus activists this year.  

Some observers fear that vague criteria could confuse applicants and serve as a way for the government to stifle speech critical of the administration or misaligned with U.S. policy.  

“Censoring the speech of non-citizens on social media seems to be a purpose of this requirement,” Nojeim told The Hill, adding users will likely be “more hesitant” to express themselves on social media. 

Read more in a full report Tuesday morning. 

Welcome to The Hill’s Technology newsletter, we’re Miranda Nazzaro and Julia Shapero — tracking the latest moves from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley.

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Crypto Corner 

Schiff takes aim at crypto conflicts

© Greg Nash

Welcome to Crypto Corner, a daily feature focused on digital currency and its outlook in Washington.

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is taking aim at President Trump’s increasing involvement in the crypto industry.

The California Democrat introduced legislation Monday to bar public officials, including the president and his family, from certain cryptocurrency-related activities.

The Curbing Officials’ Income and Nondisclosure (COIN) Act would prohibit the president, vice president, high-ranking executive branch employees, special government employees and members of Congress from issuing, sponsoring or endorsing digital assets. 

These restrictions also would extend to the immediate family members of public officials. 

Trump and his family have increasingly expanded their footprint in the crypto space, as his administration has pushed to create a more favorable regulatory environment for the industry, including through legislation. 

The president and his sons launched a crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, last fall, which has since released a stablecoin. Trump has earned about $57 million from the venture, according to a recent financial disclosure.   

He also launched a meme coin shortly before his inauguration and held a dinner with the top investors in the $TRUMP token last month. 

Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, has raised $2.5 billion to create a bitcoin reserve and has taken steps toward launching several crypto-related financial assets. 

Meanwhile, lawmakers have taken up the mantle of crypto legislation, with several Senate Democrats, including Schiff, joining Republicans to pass a bill creating a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins. 

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