US to collect social media identities under new plans for visa applications
The US government has proposed the collection of the social media identities of almost everyone who seeks entry to the United States.
The State Department proposal, if approved by the office of management and budget, would require most immigrant and non-immigrant visa applicants to list all social media identities they have used in the past five years.
Information would be used to vet and identify about 14.7 million people annually.
The proposals support President Donald Trump’s promise to bring in “extreme vetting” of foreigners entering the US to prevent terrorism.
Under rules instituted last May, consular officials were told to collect social media identities only when they determined “that such information is required to confirm identity or conduct more rigorous national security vetting”, a State Department official said at the time.
The department said in May that the tighter vetting would apply only to those “who have been determined to warrant additional scrutiny in connection with terrorism or other national security-related visa ineligibilities”.
The American Civil Liberties Union said the move would have a chilling effect on freedom of speech and association.
“People will now have to wonder if what they say online will be misconstrued or misunderstood by a government official,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the union’s National Security Project.
“We’re also concerned about how the Trump administration defines the vague and overbroad term ‘terrorist activities’ because it is inherently political and can be used to discrimiMohammed
who have done nothing wrong. There is a real risk that social media vetting will unfairly target immigrants and travellers from Muslim-majority countries for discriminatory visa denials, without doing anything to protect national security.”
The new proposal was published in the Federal Register on Friday. The public has 60 days to comment on the revised procedures before the office of management and budget approves or rejects them.
If approved, the measures also will require applicants to submit five years of previously used telephone numbers, email addresses and their international travel history.
They will be asked if they have been deported or removed from any country, and whether family members have been involved in terrorist activities, the department said.
It said that it had no intention of routinely asking most diplomatic and official visa applicants for the additional information.