 Technology |
Technology |
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International students cleanse social media |
International students are scrubbing their social media or in some case reevaluating their decision to study in the U.S. amid new visa screenings. |
© Jose Luis Magana, Associated Press |
Companies that specialize in mass deletions of posts have seen an uptick in services since the Department of Homeland Security's announcement. But clearing out everything the administration finds controversial could raise other alarms, leaving foreign students in a bind. "I think students have pretty much assumed that anything is open for interpretation or misinterpretation, and so as a result, they're extremely cautious when it comes to engaging with social media moving forward," said Fanta Aw, executive director and CEO of the Association of International Educators. The new screenings were announced in June after a three-week pause on visa interviews to update the policy, part of President Trump's broader crackdown on both legal and illegal immigration. The State Department said it would target those "who pose a threat to U.S. national security," without specifying what that would entail, and demanded anyone applying for a student visa make their social media accounts public. The go-to response from students appears to be cleansing their social media of anything even remotely controversial. Dan Saltman, CEO and founder of Redact.dev, says his company's trajectory has "greatly accelerated," with 10 percent growth each month for the past few months. His firm offers a software that allows people to mass delete posts across 30 different platforms. "Basically, our understanding is that people are using this to clean up any political takes that they have, whatsoever. Anything that can be seen as inflammatory, really kind of quelling freedom of speech," Saltman said. The Hill's Lexi Lonas Cochran has more here. |
Welcome to The Hill's Technology newsletter, I'm Julia Shapero — tracking the latest moves from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. |
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| How policy will be impacting the tech sector now and in the future: |
Lutnick: TikTok will go dark unless China agrees to US control |
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Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick warned Thursday that TikTok will go dark unless China agrees to a deal in which American owners take control of the popular social media app and its algorithm. "It’s got to come out of Chinese control," Lutnick told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." "We’ve made the decision. You can’t have Chinese control and have something on a hundred million American phones. That’s … |
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Musk expects 'rough quarters' for Tesla |
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk suggested Wednesday that the electric vehicle company could face a "rough" couple of quarters going forward. The EV firm's earnings dipped 16 percent in the second quarter of 2025, falling to just under $1.2 billion in the three-month period between April and June. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.4 billion in net income. "We probably could have a few rough quarters," Musk said … |
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Greene: Trump's AI order ignores 'massive' water usage of data centers |
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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) voiced concerns Thursday about President Trump's push to build out artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, warning about the "massive" water usage of data centers. Trump laid out his approach to the technology in his AI Action Plan on Wednesday and signed three executive orders aimed at delivering on portions of the plan, including fast-tracking data center construction, boosting the … |
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News we've flagged from the intersection of tech and other topics: |
- U.S. nuclear and health agencies hit in Microsoft SharePoint breach (Washington Post)
- U.K. targets Apple's and Google's mobile platforms for regulation (TechCrunch)
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Tether looks to reenter US under new stablecoin law |
Tether, the world's largest stablecoin issuer, is looking to reenter the U.S. market, after President Trump's signing of the GENIUS Act last week. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino told Bloomberg on Wednesday that his company is "well in progress of establishing our U.S. domestic strategy." "It's going to be focused on U.S. institutional markets, providing an efficient stablecoin for payments but also for interbank settlements and trading," Ardoino said. "That is well underway." The stablecoin issuer based in El Salvador has had a checkered past with U.S. regulators. It was banned from New York in 2021 after allegedly making false statements about its financial backing. Its potential reentry comes after Trump signed a bill last Friday to establish a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins. The GENIUS Act reached the president's desk after a tumultuous "crypto week" in the House, in which competing GOP factions rebelled and brought the chamber to a standstill. After the longest House vote on record, GOP leadership ultimately was able to move the stablecoin bill and two other pieces of crypto legislation forward. The GENIUS Act cleared the House in a 308-122 vote, with 102 Democrats joining most Republicans to pass the bill. |
Crypto Corner is a daily feature focused on digital currency and its outlook in Washington. |
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Branch out with other reads on The Hill: |
Trump denies wanting to 'destroy' Musk's companies |
President Trump on Thursday denied wanting to harm tech billionaire Elon Musk's businesses, amid questions over whether he supports federal agencies working with the Tesla CEO’s companies. "Everyone is stating that I will destroy Elon's companies by taking away some, if not all, of the large scale subsidies he receives from the U.S. Government. This is not so!" Trump wrote on Truth Social. He continued, "I want Elon, … |
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You're all caught up. See you tomorrow! |
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