US halts student visa appointments for social media screening

The US administration under President Donald Trump plans to make detailed screenings of the social media accounts of students coming to the US for education mandatory.

Reports in the US press state that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has instructed all embassies and consulates to halt the issuance of visa appointments for student visa applicants, noting that appointments will resume once the social media accounts of the applicants in question have been reviewed. It was stated that existing appointments will not be affected by this decision.

The report conveyed that Secretary Rubio's instruction included statements that the State Department plans to publish updated guidance regarding the screening of applicants' social media accounts.

The instruction stated, "The Department is reviewing current operations and processes for screening and vetting student and exchange visitor visa applicants and, based on this review, plans to issue guidance regarding expanded social media screening for all such applicants."

State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce did not comment on the reports regarding the instruction sent by Rubio, but said, "We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to assess who is coming here, whether they are students or not."