you're never allowed to criticize your owners. rubio is a fool as he demands free speech in europe as we arrest people here for speaking freely about israel;
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has instructed diplomats overseas to monitor the social media activity of student visa applicants to deny entry to those critical of the United States and Israel, according to a report.
On Tuesday, The New York Times cited two American officials as saying that Rubio issued the directive in a long cable to diplomatic missions overseas.
The directive is part of a broader campaign of deportations targeting students who have expressed support for Palestinians amid the ongoing genocidal war on Gaza or participated in campus protests against Israel.
Rubio said that, starting immediately, consular officers must refer certain student and exchange visitor visa applicants to the “fraud prevention unit” for a “mandatory social media check.”
The cable sets out the broad parameters the diplomats should use to judge whether to deny a visa.
According to the report, applicants whose social media posts should be scrutinized are those who are “suspected of having terrorist ties or sympathies” and who either had a student or exchange visa between October 7, 2023, the start date of Israel’s war, and August 31, 2024 or had their visa terminated from the date of the war to the present.
Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, after the Hamas resistance movement, designated by the US as a “terrorist” group, waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s decades-long violence against Palestinians. Since the start of the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has killed over 50,000 Palestinians.
“The dates specified by Mr. Rubio in the cable indicate that one of the main aims of the social media searches is to reject the applications of students who have expressed sympathy for Palestinians during the war,” the Times reported. ........more........