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U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

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Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#151

Post by [deleted] »

TheCoelacanth wrote: post #114
ceejayoz wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You will have to pardon us if things like visas aren't at the top of the agenda right now. I'm a lefty Democrat, but this is a cop-out. We've been shit on drone strikes and mass surveillance long before the Trump emergency was even a hint over the horizon. There's extensive bipartisan cooperation in Congress on intrusive surveillance via the NSA, ICE, etc.

Democrats at least have a large faction who are willing to complain about things like drone strikes and mass surveillance even when it is their guy doing it. Unfortunately that faction isn't yet large enough to get Democratic politicians to stop doing that kind of thing, but there is some hope that if that faction consistently shows up in primaries for a while they might eventually be able to get some change. Republi…

[deleted]

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#152

Post by JumpCrisscross »

Someone1234 wrote: post #24

People I've spoken to seem more comfortable acting like this is part of the current administration's agenda, rather than an encroaching trend which has been gradually getting worse year upon year. For example this specific policy was added as an "optional" (not really) question on an entry form before the 2016 presidential elections (I know, I wrote a letter protesting it during public comment period). My point is: B…

One nice thing about having a President with 50%+ disapproval [1] is all the things that got swept under the rug, previously, can now be made alarming. This might be an unintended way the system clears detritus and scope creep.

[1] https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/...

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#153

Post by lovich »

freehunter wrote: post #130
aurelian15 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GitHub is explicitly listed as "social media" on the optional question that is on the ESTA [1] form since 2016. If I remember correctly, the wording is relatively broad, so I would guess that HN and Reddit count as well. [1] https://www.evisaonline.com/en/usa/esta.html

Since when did GitHub stop being a code repository and start becoming a social network? Am I using GitHub wrong?

It has stars and accounts, so there is a social aspect

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#154

Post by freedomben »

aero142 wrote: post #84
Idontagree wrote: post #66

Doesn't some other countries already do this? I was asked about my LinkedIn for a work visa in Canada.

Canada is very aggressive about searching for "hate speech" at the border. This includes mandating that you turn over your phone and searching through your texts, emails and any linked accounts for keywords. This is personal experience.

I've crossed the US/Canadian border probably a dozen times in the last 3 years and have never been asked about this, or asked to see my phone. The Canadians seemed much more concerned about guns and drugs/alcohol. It was actually worse coming back into the US than getting into Canada (I am a US citizen with passport for comparison purposes).

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#155

Post by bojo »

Ugh. I'm at the tail end of doing immigration visas for my wife and daughter, and it's taken a year to get here. The process is already somewhat stressful as it is. Adding bullshit like social media to the already long list of things you have to report makes my blood boil. Glad we'll be done before this ever gets approved.

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#156

Post by inetknght »

dmode wrote: post #49
paulgb wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A more hidden effect of this is the chilling effect of this on what would-be immigrants post on social media. E.g. should I remove a photo from the Women's March because it was seen by some as a protest against the current administration?

I actually went back and deleted all my “controversial” social media posts while I was applying for a visa transfer. This was even before this policy announcement. I don’t put it past vindicative people in the administration to causally check out social media posts while adjucating petitions

"deleted"

I don't think this word means what you think it means in today's internet.

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#157

Post by dragonwriter »

paxy wrote: post #141
dboreham wrote: post #58

One thing to know is that apparently the reason for having seemingly idiotic questions on immigration forms ("are you a terrorist?", "are you a nazi war criminal?") is not that the government is stupid but rather that they're there in order to be able to deport someone for answering the question incorrectly in the event that the government wants to deport them but lacks sufficient evidence to pursue a criminal case.…

This is such a stupid explanation. Do people really think the government is going to go "You're a terrorist, but we can't deport you for that. But look here, you checked this form wrong.."

> This is such a stupid explanation. Do people really think the government is going to go "You're a terrorist, but we can't deport you for that. But look here, you checked this form wrong.."

No, they are going to say anything like that to you; what they'll do is go to a judge and say we have this evidence that this visa-holder is a terrorist (which evidence doesn't actually relate to any crime prosecutable under US law, because not all terrorism in the world is a US crime) and that they therefore committed the crime of attempting to defraud the government by the way they filled out this form stating that they totally weren't a terrorist, and so we'd like to go arrest them please. And the judge will say, “why, sure". And then what they actually say to you will involve lots of guns carried by high-on-adrenaline counter-terorism agents storming into the place where your family is sleeping in the middle of the night.

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#159

Post by dragonwriter »

komali2 wrote: post #96
dboreham wrote: post #58

One thing to know is that apparently the reason for having seemingly idiotic questions on immigration forms ("are you a terrorist?", "are you a nazi war criminal?") is not that the government is stupid but rather that they're there in order to be able to deport someone for answering the question incorrectly in the event that the government wants to deport them but lacks sufficient evidence to pursue a criminal case.…

Doesn't the 5th amendment make those questions impossible to answer? (If you plead the 5th on them, you're.. probably a terrorist...)

> Doesn't the 5th amendment make those questions impossible to answer?

The 5th amendment doesn't really apply because entry to the US on a visa isn't a criminal prosecution; no one is compelling you to answer the question, you can choose not to by choosing not to apply for a visa.

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#160

Post by etskinner »

paxy wrote: post #141
dboreham wrote: post #58

One thing to know is that apparently the reason for having seemingly idiotic questions on immigration forms ("are you a terrorist?", "are you a nazi war criminal?") is not that the government is stupid but rather that they're there in order to be able to deport someone for answering the question incorrectly in the event that the government wants to deport them but lacks sufficient evidence to pursue a criminal case.…

This is such a stupid explanation. Do people really think the government is going to go "You're a terrorist, but we can't deport you for that. But look here, you checked this form wrong.."

Not sure you're thinking nefariously enough. More likely it could be "you're saying things we don't like" or "your religion is icky", things that they otherwise aren't allowed to take action on.
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