Social-media screening for visitors

PROPOSAL IS LIKELY TO COVER FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, SNAPCHAT AND TWITTER

New proposal likely to cover Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter |

This attempt to collect a massive amount of information on the social media activity of millions of visa applicants is yet another ineffective and deeply problematic Trump administration plan.”

Hina Shamsi | Director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project

Nearly all applicants for a visa to enter the United States — an estimated 14.7 million people a year — will be asked to submit their social-media usernames for the past five years, under proposed rules that the State Department issued on Friday.

Last September, the Trump administration announced that applicants for immigrant visas would be asked for social-media data, a proposal that would affect about 710,000 people each year. The new proposal would vastly expand that requirement to cover some 14 million people each year who apply for nonimmigrant visas.

Although officials did not specify which social-media platforms would be affected, the proposal is likely to cover the largest ones, like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. It could also conceivably include social-media platforms based overseas, like QQ and Weibo in China and VK in Russia.

During his campaign, President Donald Trump promised “extreme vetting” of people seeking to enter the United States, and last March, the State Department directed consular officers around the world to step up scrutiny of visa applicants.

But the new proposal would add a tangible new requirement for millions of people who apply to visit the United States for work or pleasure, including citizens of such countries as Brazil, China, India and Mexico.

Citizens of roughly 40 countries to which the United States ordinarily grants visafree travel will not be affected by the requirement. Those countries include major allies like Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and South Korea.

In addition, visitors travelling on diplomatic and official visas will mostly be exempted.

By some measures, the number of international visitors to the United States has begun to slip, although foreign tourism to New York City set a record last year.

As news of the proposal emerged Friday, so did criticism.

Ineffective plan

“This attempt to collect a massive amount of information on the social media activity of millions of visa applicants is yet another ineffective and deeply problematic Trump administration plan,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project.

“It will infringe on the rights of immigrants and US citizens by chilling freedom of speech and association, particularly because people will now have to wonder if what they say online will be misconstrued or misunderstood by a government official.”