#social-media-monitoring

#social-media-monitoring

The United States is reviewing the social media accounts of some visa applicants, adding another hurdle for workers and other visitors to clear under the Trump administration. It's also adding a hurdle for embassies processing those visa applications. The State Department said in June that certain visa applicants would have their online activity vetted as part of its screening process. Six months later, the department expanded the list of visas that were subject to "online presence reviews." The new rule has complicated the visa application process, causing significant delays for approvals.

The reality is people are talking about your brand and your industry - whether you're in the (digital) room or not. They're swapping product recommendations via Instagram Stories or sharing feedback using TikTok comments. Paying attention to your direct mentions and tags is great - necessary, even - but it's not enough if you want to hear more unfiltered thoughts directly from your audience. That's where social listening comes in.

In 2025, Trump administration officials-primarily at the Departments of State and Homeland Security-created a mass surveillance program to monitor constitutionally protected speech by noncitizens lawfully present in the U.S. Using AI and other automated technologies, the program has surveilled the social media accounts of visa holders and lawful permanent residents...

In its most recent threat report [PDF] published today, the GenAI giant said that these users usually asked ChatGPT to help design tools for large-scale monitoring and analysis - but stopped short of asking the model to perform the surveillance activities. "What we saw and banned in those cases was typically threat actors asking ChatGPT to help put together plans or documentation for AI-powered tools, but not then to implement them," Ben Nimmo, principal investigator on OpenAI's Intelligence and Investigations team, told reporters.

"CONNECT uses (and has always used) advanced analytics such as pattern recognition, predictive modelling, and machine learning, which are all forms of AI. Social media is just one of the many sources CONNECT reviews," she explained.