US will expand social media, work history vetting for H-1B visas

More social media checks are being conducted as the US expands its vetting process for applicants seeking highly skilled H-1B visas, as well as those who work in fields like misinformation and disinformation.

On Thursday, the US Department of State mandated that all H-1B applicants and their dependents make all of their social media profiles public so that they “don’t intend to harm Americans and our national interests.” Following a similar requirement in July that all student visa applicants must publicly update their social media profiles, this is made.

H-1B visas allow US businesses to employ foreigners with “speciality” knowledge, typically in academic or technical fields like medicine, technology, finance, and engineering. The H-1B offers a path to immigrating to the US, despite being categorized as temporary visas.

According to an internal cable obtained by the Reuters news agency, the State Department will also examine H-1B applications for work in fields that promote “free speech” censorship.

For any work in “misinformation, disinformation, content moderation, fact-checking, compliance, and online safety,” or “social media or financial services companies involved in the suppression of protected expression,” consular staff are required to review applicants’ LinkedIn and employment histories.

Any accompanying family members and H-1B visa renewal applicants are subject to the new regulations.

You should pursue a finding that the applicant is ineligible, the cable said, “if you find evidence that an applicant was responsible for, or complicit in, censorship or attempted censorship of protected expression in the United States.”

The US State Department, which previously supported international projects aimed at verifying facts and combating misinformation and disinformation, is departing from the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Since his January return to the White House, US President Donald Trump has taken action to ease what he perceives as restrictions on “free speech,” which are typically those of conservative voices. Following the US Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, Trump himself was previously removed from X, formerly known as Twitter. Elon Musk, a free speech skeptic and tech billionaire, purchased the platform in 2022, and he was reinstated.

Signing an executive order that outlaws “federal censorship” of free speech was one of his first as president. The US State Department threatened in May that it would impose a ban on foreigners who had worked to impose restrictions on free speech on US citizens, including by pressuring US tech companies to impose rules on social media content.