U.S. Visitors, Immigrants Could Be Required To Reveal Social Media Identities

[Lucian Armasu]

The U.S. government issued a proposal that would require visitors and immigrants to submit their social media identities into their visa application forms. The public will have 60 days to comment on it, before the OMB approves or rejects the proposal.

U.S. Visitors, Immigrants Could Be Required To Reveal Social Media Identities : Read more

 

[AnimeMania]

What does "reveal all of their social media identities used in the past five years." Without a definition of "Social Media" this could mean almost anything, your "PornHub" account, Tom's Hardware, Game of Thrones chatroom, Cat Lovers blog, Amazon reviews, MetroHealth Insurance login, Steam account, etc. By the time you list every website that you, your spouse and 2 kids have ever logged into and the U.S. government checks it out and gives you permission to visit Disneyland, your kids are too "old" to want to go. It seems like it is a way to keep certain people or people from certain countries from entering the U.S.

 

[CKKwan]

This confirmed that Facebook is supported and used by NSA as a tool. No wonder......

 

[Raymond_92]

Good, this is a great way of filtering out terrorists and extremists while letting ordinary people through.

Many extremists continue to promote violence over Twitter, the government should 100% be investigating these people's Social Media accounts.

The only nonsense here is that it's "Voluntary" and that they rely on them to provide it. Tapping their lines once they're in the country until they become a legal citizen is a better way of monitoring this and still protecting the rights of U.S. Citizens.

People like the New York Truck attacker used social media extensively to promote and plan their terrorist acts.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41835266

"Our gaze naturally turns, then, to the source of his radicalization, to where he so easily found the ISIS material: Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube."

http://time.com/5008076/nyc-terror-attack-isis-facebook-russia/

People pushing such content shouldn't be allowed in the U.S., and if they are they should be rounded up and executed for planning to commit terrorism.

People from Terror ridden countries and countries without strong immigration policies shouldn't be "asked" to be provide such details - they should always without question be monitored.

The only flaw in this is the optional component.

 

[p.genesis]

This will send the right message to people that you cannot spew hatred for a nation and her people on social media, criticize the nation's government, her leaders and her culture and then show up at the embassy hoping for a visa. If a person is so filled with loathing against a certain country - not just the USA - but have no shame in desiring to visit or worse, migrate there, it is the right of that sovereign republic to deny a visa to that person. I am not an American but I am disgusted with people who love the American dream but hate her people. Such hypocrisy should not be tolerated just because it is 'free speech.' Try saying bad things about China on social media and show up for a visa. We keep rewarding the rebellious and punishing the penitent. About time the USA chose to put an end to this madness.

 

[lsatenstein]

Tourism is a major industry in the USA. Invasion of privacy is not a right. As a Canadian, I won't be travelling to the USA on a two week vacation if this law goes into effect. If this scrutiny goes into effect, the USA will be out $2500 dollars of vacation dollars for a vacation that I will take elsewhere.

 

[lsatenstein]

Why do I see the current administration as acting as if all hundreds of thousands of visitors and immigrants are criminals or illegals. Why does the current administration promote fear?

I usually take in a trade show or two, and buy US manufactured products. Now looking at trade shows outside of the USA. (I may still be purchasing American products at the alternative shows).

 

[leoscott]

Tourism is a major industry in the USA. Invasion of privacy is not a right. As a Canadian, I won't be travelling to the USA on a two week vacation if this law goes into effect. If this scrutiny goes into effect, the USA will be out $2500 dollars of vacation dollars for a vacation that I will take elsewhere.

Not a problem.

 

[leoscott]

Tourism is a major industry in the USA. Invasion of privacy is not a right. As a Canadian, I won't be travelling to the USA on a two week vacation if this law goes into effect. If this scrutiny goes into effect, the USA will be out $2500 dollars of vacation dollars for a vacation that I will take elsewhere.

It would be nice if you would look at recent history around why they might want to do this. in 2015 Tashfeen Malik, allowed in the US on a fiancée VISA from Pakistan, and her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, killed 14 co-workers in San Bernardino, California. It was a terrorist attack. Tashfeen was found to have terror related postings on one of her social media accounts in the subsequent investigation. Considering the number of VISAs the US allows in and the number of people available to check their social media (multiply the amount of effort by the likely quantity of each applicant's social media accounts) it is highly unlikely they will be checking EVERYONE's social media. A REASONABLE person would assume it will be random and targeted.
So you have to ask yourself would you be suspicious to a US immigration official?

 

[phonea21]

"I won't go to the U.S. because they want to stop terrorists"

Yeah smart move we don't want morons coming to visit anyways.

 

[daglesj]

It's not about terrorism. It's about general control over the world population. The 1% has run the numbers. They know things are going to get bad, real bad and they need to be able to quell any trouble before it gets too serious.

They want to keep their money and control. The last thing they want is enough folks in the West to wake up one morning and say "This ain't working for me anymore!" like they did in Eastern Europe in the early 90's.

This is just another tool to help weed out the future dissenters and popular leaders. They need to keep us at heel.

As for tourism...yeah it does have an effect. We used to go to the USA quite often for holidays. We now havent been to the US since 2003 and refuse to. Canada now gets around $12000 every two years from us. It all adds up.

Thanks Canada! (the beer is better there too)

 

[kinggremlin]

It's not about terrorism. It's about general control over the world population. The 1% has run the numbers. They know things are going to get bad, real bad and they need to be able to quell any trouble before it gets too serious.

They want to keep their money and control. The last thing they want is enough folks in the West to wake up one morning and say "This ain't working for me anymore!" like they did in Eastern Europe in the early 90's.

This is just another tool to help weed out the future dissenters and popular leaders. They need to keep us at heel.

As for tourism...yeah it does have an effect. We used to go to the USA quite often for holidays. We now havent been to the US since 2003 and refuse to. Canada now gets around $12000 every two years from us. It all adds up.

Thanks Canada! (the beer is better there too)

OMG!? $12,000 every 2 years!? No wonder the US's national debt has grown from $6.8 trillion in 2003 to over $20 trillion in 2017. Please come back! I'm tired of having to find a public electrical socket to charge my phone so I can surf the web on it in the dark in my home. I need your money to get my lights turned back on.

 

[Mr5oh]

Ever since they started talking about this I wondered what they would do with someone like me. I have no social media accounts (I am not "old" and typically travel with a slew of electronic devices). So are they going to accept my answer, or assume I'm hiding something and deny me entry? (This is hypothetical as I'm a US citizen)

Who has the burden to prove these social media accounts exist?

 

[wysir]

This is cute. Good luck trying to prove that they even have social media accounts. It's not exactly a required form of identity.

 

[Sam Hain]

Funny, if this method was applied to those: already living in/work-visa'd/green-card'd AND extended to U.S. citizens and enforced... How's that saying go with the monkey and a football???

 

[Olle P]

Good, this is a great way of filtering out terrorists and extremists while letting ordinary people through. ...

It's hard to tell if this comment is serious or sarcastic.

I think the proposal won't do achieve anything but annoy those that are no threat in the first place.
I expect US authorities to know about accounts where possible threats show up, and their ability to connect these with the right person anyway. "Bad people" obviously won't disclose their affinity to any relevant social forum.

The 21 million hours required fo rthe vatting process seems very optimistic, given that most people have more than one identity. I'm pretty sure I'd miss a few if I tried to provide all of the various online forums I've used in the last five years.

 

[p.genesis]

Tourism is a major industry in the USA. Invasion of privacy is not a right. As a Canadian, I won't be travelling to the USA on a two week vacation if this law goes into effect. If this scrutiny goes into effect, the USA will be out $2500 dollars of vacation dollars for a vacation that I will take elsewhere.

Oh no! How will the US economy recover from a single Canadian's decision to deprive the entire nation out of $2500? Half of Asia wants to move to the US. Legally. Most of them want to come work. Contribute to the economy and to the infrastructure and most of them will do exactly that. Your $2500 will not be missed.