India, Dec. 16 -- The US's new regime of expanded vetting of H-1B came into force from Monday. "Online presence review" may sound innocuous at first instance, but it is Orwellian in every sense. The new vetting norms require every applicant (and their dependents) to adjust the settings of their social media profiles to "public", so that the US State department builds profiles of them based on their online posts preceding the date of application. Similar vetting norms have also been proposed for tourist visa applications. The US State department says in no uncertain terms that every visa adjudication is a matter of national security, and it will use "all available information" to identify applicants who are "inadmissible to the United States". The wide sweep of the vetting would mean anything that an applicant has posted online, which may be remotely considered to be "against US interests", will be grounds for visa rejection. The chilling effect from this should be clear to all. And, deleting a post from years ago that could run afoul of the current regime may not matter much, given that it will always leave a footprint that can be seen by anyone wishing to dig it up. It is unclear what will be picked up to profile a visa applicant - a direct post criticising the US, or even a post by someone else, shared from one's social media account. Will it be limited to criticism of the US and its policies or - given how President Donald Trump has handled personal criticism - also of its "political personages", particularly Trump? Or will it also extend to criticism of countries that the US sees as allies? What is certain is that the Trumpian US will be watching, with a not-so-discreet thought police clamping down on free speech....