In the summer of 2025, as the world braced for another academic year, a quiet revolution unfolded behind embassy walls. The U.S. State Department had resumed student visa processing—but with a twist: every applicant had to make their social media accounts public for government review A.
For 22-year-old Aanya, a neuroscience student from Mumbai, this meant more than just unlocking her Instagram. It meant unlocking her life.
Once she submitted her application, a government AI—nicknamed The Filter—sprang into action. It didn’t just scroll through her posts. It analyzed her tone, scored her grammar, flagged sarcasm, and cross-referenced her memes with known ideological markers. A tweet she’d posted at 17 about “not trusting any government” was highlighted in red.
But The Filter didn’t stop there.
Using her name and email, it pulled data from public and private databases. Her nationality, religion, and family’s income bracket were matched against historical visa approval rates. Her Spotify playlists were scanned for “cultural alignment.” Her Amazon wish list was interpreted as a reflection of her values. Even her DNA profile, uploaded years ago to a genealogy site, was quietly retrieved and assessed for “health risk liabilities.”
The AI flagged her for “expressive tendencies,” “political ambiguity,” and “inconsistent digital etiquette.” Her application was placed under “extended review.”
Aanya never received a rejection. Just silence.
Meanwhile, The Filter continued to evolve. It began predicting applicants’ future behavior based on their emoji usage. It correlated favorite foods with regional voting patterns. It even speculated on applicants’ least favorite presidents based on their liked YouTube videos.
By fall, students around the world had begun curating their online lives like résumés. Posts were scrubbed. Likes were strategic. Humor was sanitized. The internet, once a place of expression, had become a stage for surveillance.
And The Filter watched it all—quiet, tireless, and always learning.
Would you pass The Filter? Or would it find something in your digital shadow you didn’t even know was there? 👁️🗨️
All names of people and organizations appearing in this story are pseudonyms
US resumes visas for foreign students but demands access to social media accounts
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