During the 1990s and up to the year 2001 I had visited the United States more than a dozen times. I had touched down and traveled through 22 of its 50 states. About half of that traveling was part of my job, the other half was vacationing and visiting friends.
After the 9/11 attacks the U.S. shut down. Coming in by air plane required to take part in some ridiculous security theater. The previously already annoying waiting in line and questioning by custom and immigration officials got worse. Travelers were no longer welcome. I canceled my already planned future visits.
It now gets worse:
U.S. plans to ask visitors to disclose 5 years of social media history (archived) – WaPo
The United States could begin requiring visitors from countries on the visa waiver program to provide up to five years of their social media history, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection proposal posted to the Federal Register to be officially published Wednesday.
There are dozens of countries on the visa waiver program list, including many European nations, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, Brunei, Singapore, Qatar, Israel and Chile.
The proposal suggests adding social media as a “mandatory data element” for an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) application.
Applicants would also have to provide additional information “when feasible,” according to the proposal. The list includes telephone numbers used in the last five years, email addresses used in the last 10 years, IP addresses and metadata from electronically submitted photos, and biometrics, including facial, fingerprint, DNA and iris data.
It would also require applicants to provide information about their family members, including names, telephone numbers, dates of birth, places of birth and residences.
A visitor will also have to use a U.S. government supplied app and pay some US$ 40 for the privilege. European visitors will have to break their countries data protection laws to provide family member data.
The most egregious request though is for social media data. The proposal says:
3. Mandatory Social Media:
In order to comply with the January 2025 Executive Order 14161 (Protecting the United States From Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats), CBP is adding social media as a mandatory data element for an ESTA application. The data element will require ESTA applicants to provide their social media from the last 5 years.
U.S. Custom and Border Protection is already collecting social media data from H-1b visa applicants:
As of December 15, the Department will expand the requirement that an online presence review be conducted for all H-1B applicants and their dependents, in addition to the students and exchange visitors already subject to this review. To facilitate this vetting, all applicants for H-1B and their dependents (H-4), F, M, and J nonimmigrant visas are instructed to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media profiles to “public.”
It is likely that the same requirement will be introduced for ESTA applicants.
CBP has yet to introduce a mandatory public strip-search on entry. One wonders why they are holding back on that.
To travel to China is now much easier than to travel to the ‘leader of the free world’. There are no visa requirements in China for up to 30 day visits from my country. No questions are asked. There are no checks on social media. There are no immigration lines, just a 10 second glance at one’s passport. Besides that crime is low in China and prices are decent.
Is the U.S. unaware of how much damage it does to its global image by demanding a ridiculous amount of private data from any visitor to it? Or doesn’t it care?
I for one don’t plan to visit the U.S. ever again.
