“هل تنوي التقديم على تأشيرة دراسية أو تبادل ثقافي؟ تأكد أن حساباتك على وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي مضبوطة على أنها “عامة” “.
This message published by the United States Embassy in Tunis in early July raised a wave of discomfort with many young Tunisians. Behind the harmless formulation – “This will facilitate the processing of your file” – In reality, there is a change: to apply for a student or exchange program (F, M or J), it is now necessary to make public social accounts public. A practice presented as optional, but strongly incentive, even binding.
Since 2019, candidates for student visas must already provide the identifiers of their accounts on social networks. But since June 2025, this requirement has been reinforced: The American Embassy now invites us to make these accounts publicwhich marks a major turning point in the digital surveillance of candidates.
This hardening does not only target Tunisians. Since June 2025, the United States Department of State has asked all its embassies to intensify the “Digital screening” candidates for academic visas. This new orientation follows growing tensions on American campuses, including Pro-Palestinian student mobilizations Having put the Trump administration under pressure.
After The Washington Post (July 9, 2025)many candidates for a student visa “have started to serve their online presence: they unsubscribe from political figures, delete publications, and deactivate accounts for fear that a like be misinterpreted”.
A student explains to have gone to “Unfollow AOC, Kamala, Biden, Obama …” to avoid any suspicion.
A global measure, but a particular shock in Tunisia
If this measure caused criticism in several countries, the reaction in Tunisia takes on a special turn, imprint of bitterness. Here is a sample of the more than 300 comments left under the publication of the embassy: a Tunisian user, Ahmed chesummarizes the ambient discomfort with a scathing irony:
“عيني عينك الشي ههه mount … هات ندخلو نشوفو أفكارك توع شي. بكشي يطلع عندك رأي مخالف لتوجهاتنا السياسية هكة تمضمض. »»
(“Downright at the sight of everyone! Go, we are looking for your ideas, your opinions, your private world shared with your friends and your family … We want to see everything. Maybe you have an opinion contrary to our policy? And hop, you release.”)
The shadow of pro-Gaza demonstrations on visas
If this policy has imposed itself in the name of security, it is also part of a very political context. After the campus occupations In the spring of 2024 against the war in Gaza, dozens of international students saw their Visas revoked or refused. The Harvard affair – where sponsors demanded sanctions against students signatory to petitions – had a domino effect. From now on, Any online support deemed “extremist” or “anti-American” may be reported.
Platforms like X (ex-Twitter), Tiktok or Reddit are regularly scrutinized. Consular services now use artificial intelligence tools to identify, classify and assign a digital risk score to candidates. The danger: a Mal interpreted postA Like ambiguousor a Pseudonym engaged can cost an academic future.
Read:: Donald Trump plans to cancel the student visas of pro-Palestinian demonstrators
NGO Defense of Digital Freedoms: concerns about surveillance
Several organizations for the defense of digital freedoms express concerns concerning the new rules for filtering social media for candidates for student visas:
- Common Dreams reports that NGOs for the defense of digital freedoms denounce the logic of preventive surveillance established by these new rules, believing that they are undermining the freedom of expression and the privacy of international students.
- Reuters Indicates that human rights defenders are concerned about the way in which the new rules of social media filtering could be used to target students according to their political opinions, in particular with regard to pro-Palestinian movements.
