I think it's not unreasonable to connect vetting student visas with the fight with Harvard, but could it be correlation rather than causation?
Social media vetting has been in place since 2019, surviving multiple administrations. Most people I know do not fill in the boxes on their ESTA form despite technically being perjury from what I understand. Expanding social media vetting to better catch unreported social media accounts to enforce a now longish-standing policy on a smaller group of visa applicants as a start doesn't seem too insane I think? It does if you link it to university suppression like the Harvard case, but I think there might be some straw-reaching in connecting them.
Social media vetting has been in place since 2019, surviving multiple administrations. Most people I know do not fill in the boxes on their ESTA form despite technically being perjury from what I understand. Expanding social media vetting to better catch unreported social media accounts to enforce a now longish-standing policy on a smaller group of visa applicants as a start doesn't seem too insane I think? It does if you link it to university suppression like the Harvard case, but I think there might be some straw-reaching in connecting them.