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U.S. now can ask travelers for Facebook, Twitter handles

usatoday.com

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Re: U.S. now can ask travelers for Facebook, Twitter handles

#41

Post by accountyaccount »

jc_811 wrote: post #19

I'm all for privacy and the government not overstepping their bounds, but could someone please let me know why this is so bad? I'm genuinely curious. Your social media info is Public. If you have information public, that is your own fault and the govt can access that regardless if you give them your handles or not. If they were asking for passwords and access to accounts - of course that would be a different ball gam…

There's a lot of value inherent to the ability to remain anonymous on the internet. This essentially strips that away because to retain that anonymity you have to commit a felony.

Innocuous example: for a while people wanted to know who horse_ebooks was, and there was some allure to that. Under this rule some low-level government employee can essentially leak it to all of their friends, or worse — blackmail.

Now we're creating two groups of people:

A. Those who are not anonymous

B. Felons

Re: U.S. now can ask travelers for Facebook, Twitter handles

#42

Post by mattnewton »

jc_811 wrote: post #19

I'm all for privacy and the government not overstepping their bounds, but could someone please let me know why this is so bad? I'm genuinely curious. Your social media info is Public. If you have information public, that is your own fault and the govt can access that regardless if you give them your handles or not. If they were asking for passwords and access to accounts - of course that would be a different ball gam…

The problem as I see it is your are presumed to have one of these things in the first place. If they wanted to get publically available information, there are search engines and facebook's search, they should just do that. But by asking you to find yourself the onus is on you personally to produce a result- and what if you don't have one? Will they believe you? Should we de-facto require everyone in the world to get social media accounts with American companies that look presentable should they ever want to visit?

Re: U.S. now can ask travelers for Facebook, Twitter handles

#43

Post by rb808 »

jc_811 wrote: post #19

I'm all for privacy and the government not overstepping their bounds, but could someone please let me know why this is so bad? I'm genuinely curious. Your social media info is Public. If you have information public, that is your own fault and the govt can access that regardless if you give them your handles or not. If they were asking for passwords and access to accounts - of course that would be a different ball gam…

Yeah I'm mixed on this. Obviously from your social media accounts they can find nearly everything about you. However giving address & phone number probably links you too and that is just normally accepted.

Re: U.S. now can ask travelers for Facebook, Twitter handles

#44

Post by mbroncano »

korzun wrote: post #29
PopsiclePete wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Define "threatening". It's a slippery slope. Yeah, maybe "Allahu Akbar death to America" is an obvious one, but what about "Fuck Trump for pulling out of the Paris climate accord" - is that "anti-American"?

> "Fuck Trump for pulling out of the Paris climate accord" - is that "anti-American"? Name one country that will grant you VISA if you start yelling similar things about their president.

Any European country will

Re: U.S. now can ask travelers for Facebook, Twitter handles

#45

Post by goatforce5 »

korzun wrote: post #29
PopsiclePete wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Define "threatening". It's a slippery slope. Yeah, maybe "Allahu Akbar death to America" is an obvious one, but what about "Fuck Trump for pulling out of the Paris climate accord" - is that "anti-American"?

> "Fuck Trump for pulling out of the Paris climate accord" - is that "anti-American"? Name one country that will grant you VISA if you start yelling similar things about their president.

Assuming you agree that this would be a valid reason to deny a visa to the US, are you able to provide examples of other phrases that should get you denied entry to the US?

And phrases that might be critical of the President, but not enough to deny entry?

I'm curious to know where you see the line between acceptable and unacceptable...

Re: U.S. now can ask travelers for Facebook, Twitter handles

#46

Post by natch »

It certainly seems like bad guys will lie. Which makes it sound stupid at first. But maybe there's some logic to the law.

At least for those who lie, it adds a punishable offense that can potentially be used for prosecution at a later date, if and when the evidence emerges.

So, for example, let's say a foreign national living in the US is found later on to be apparently plotting a terror attack, but they haven't yet followed through with it, so there is nothing to prosecute them with.

The authorities could dredge up deportation-worthy crimes by going back and doing a detailed look at the person and finding that they had committed the crime of providing false or incomplete information.

Re: U.S. now can ask travelers for Facebook, Twitter handles

#47

Post by thr0waway1239 »

Hmm.. this is way too much friction. I call upon the tech giants to brainstorm and make the process more seamless.

For example: why can't the govt take your picture and upload it to their servers at FB/Google/etc and get all the relevant info in a jiffy?

Re: U.S. now can ask travelers for Facebook, Twitter handles

#48

Post by dguaraglia »

natch wrote: post #46

It certainly seems like bad guys will lie. Which makes it sound stupid at first. But maybe there's some logic to the law. At least for those who lie, it adds a punishable offense that can potentially be used for prosecution at a later date, if and when the evidence emerges. So, for example, let's say a foreign national living in the US is found later on to be apparently plotting a terror attack, but they haven't yet…

That's kind of the "gotcha" question they ask you when getting a passport in an overseas office: "have you ever been affiliated with a terrorist organization or performed terrorist acts in another country?" At face value the question is ridiculous, but they put it there just to make sure they've got you on record lying to a government official if you are ever found out to have lied.

Now, the problem with the Facebook/Twitter thing is that the really bad guys are not going to be stupid enough to have Facebook and Twitter accounts where they say they'll be committing terrorist acts, and they won't worry about being caught lying later on. So all in all, this sounds like posturing for posturing sake.

Re: U.S. now can ask travelers for Facebook, Twitter handles

#49

Post by mattnewton »

rb808 wrote: post #43
jc_811 wrote: post #19

I'm all for privacy and the government not overstepping their bounds, but could someone please let me know why this is so bad? I'm genuinely curious. Your social media info is Public. If you have information public, that is your own fault and the govt can access that regardless if you give them your handles or not. If they were asking for passwords and access to accounts - of course that would be a different ball gam…

Yeah I'm mixed on this. Obviously from your social media accounts they can find nearly everything about you. However giving address & phone number probably links you too and that is just normally accepted.

People don't usually publish their thoughts on bulliten boards outside their homes and phone calls (of citizens who are comfortable giving these to the government at least) have a reasonable expectation of privacy, so that data is gated behind warrants from the judiciary.

Re: U.S. now can ask travelers for Facebook, Twitter handles

#50

Post by scandox »

korzun wrote: post #29
PopsiclePete wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Define "threatening". It's a slippery slope. Yeah, maybe "Allahu Akbar death to America" is an obvious one, but what about "Fuck Trump for pulling out of the Paris climate accord" - is that "anti-American"?

> "Fuck Trump for pulling out of the Paris climate accord" - is that "anti-American"? Name one country that will grant you VISA if you start yelling similar things about their president.

Ireland
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