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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

#301

Post by opportune »

larkeith wrote: post #230
_acme wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Under what conditions would any of these events actually occur? The government isn't going to waste resources to deport someone solely for forgetting an account; they would only go to such effort if there's another reason that they actually care about to deport that person.

The point isn't to go after everyone who fails to completely or accurately answer, but rather to provide a pretext for the deportation of people the government disfavor but lack a criminal case against; for example, an immigrant opposition leader, protestor, or whistleblower.

Yes exactly. Laws which de jure make everyone a criminal simply give the government an excuse to de facto imprison or expel whomever they want, and should be avoided at all costs

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

#302

Post by SlowRobotAhead »

HillaryBriss wrote: post #289
opportune wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think being a corporate mouthpiece was the reason Hillary lost; I think it had more to do with her lack of charisma and the many years of media that had engendered a deep feeling of mistrust towards her. Obama was almost as corporate as her, in my opinion, except he was much more well spoken and likable. Biden is along the same lines and it looks like he's gearing up for a run for the presidency. Also as elec…

i think so too. if Trump is still around in Nov 2020, he's overwhelmingly likely to lose. his opposition is extremely motivated and overflowing with a prurient desire to defeat him, while Trump's remaining voters, who have been repeatedly embarrassed and disappointed, have as much motivation to show up at the polls as a child has to show up at a vaccination clinic.

It’s like it’s Nov7th up in here.

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

#303

Post by opportune »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #247
bambax wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> bureaucracy I wouldn't call it bureaucracy, but I don't know of a proper, better name. Hysteria maybe. Not sure.

Bureaucracy is often the result of hysteria. The USA is hysterical over terrorism when it should be hysterical over cancer, college cost increases, and health care. It's all a product of the government realizing that it's easy to fool the bleating masses with terrorist straw men.

It's not only the government, the media is very much a contributing factor too. One small terrorist attack yields multiple days of coverage and exposure. Terrorism is given an extremely outsized portion of coverage on the news and as a result people think it's a much bigger problem than it actually is. But it's an extremely convenient cover for taking away people's rights and spending even more money on the military.

I've posted this before in another thread, but after 2001, less Americans have been killed by terrorists per year than have been killed by lightning. And yet think of all the money and attention that have been devoted to something more dangerous than slipping in the bathtub, and the rights "we" willingly gave up for that. It makes 0 sense

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

#304

Post by SlowRobotAhead »

conkerspoon wrote: post #271
nbdev wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You won't visit the US because they want your social media details?

Americans may be shocked to discover that given the downward trajectory of the US at the moment, for many international travellers this is yet one more reason to choose somewhere else over the US. It's hardly extreme to avoid a country that keeps providing reason after reason to avoid it. Especially for people who have been outspoken about the US' illegal wars and various war crimes.

>Americans may be shocked to discover that given the downward trajectory of the US at the moment,

... ok, sure sure.

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

#305

Post by qwerty456127 »

It's time to delete everything and close our social media accounts. We ought to quit this game.

By the way, do they understand people change? Immature minds are prone to idealize all kinds of bullshit (incl. marxism and eugenics), daemonize whoever and whatever does not fit in their view (usually extremely narrow to the moment) and shout about this aloud but they grow older, expand their understanding and change their views. How many people don't feel embarrassed reading the comments they have posted years ago?

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

#306

Post by opportune »

dbsvsv wrote: post #269
opportune wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conversely, it makes running an opposition campaign so easy that the opposition won't need to focus on the big issues. The opposition could focus on morality and pay lip-service to neoliberal diversity theatre while simultaneously selling out to corporate interests. If you're running against Trump in an election, what's the point of drawing the ire of industry (pharma, insurance, military, surveillance, general big-c…

The entire Russia collusion thing is to take peoples attention away from dnc's burning of Bernie and other actions. I would urge people to read the WikiLeaks emails once and see what's in their. Its truly damning. Also if there were an actual collusion then one of those "17 intelligence agencies" and the senate intelligence committee or Mueller probe would have revealed in a year. Unless you admit Trump is a total Ge…

It's possible for the Russia collusion thing to be both a distraction and substantive. We'll see if it is or not in due time.

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

#307

Post by Strom »

swebs wrote: post #95
huhtenberg wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just immigrants, but all visitors.

Nah, citizens of most first world countries don't need a visa to enter the US if they're visiting for less than 90 days. This includes western Europe, Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Baltic countries, etc. You can just get on a plane and fly over. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_Waiver_Program#/media/Fil...

True but the ESTA application has been asking for social media accounts for some time already. I was definitely surprised to see them explicitly asking me for my github account. Luckily it’s optional right now and I got approved without giving anything, but now the infrastructure is there and they only need to flip the required bit.

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

#308

Post by telchar »

dfsegoat wrote: post #299
ljm wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fundamental issue, I see, is the polarizing platform. When it comes to modern day discourse you're not looking at a nuanced debate, you're just seeing pro and anti. I don't even need to cite a source, you just need to look at the division in the world around you and wonder why it looks so fucking simple. Nobody is focusing on big issues because everybody is being told to look for an attack or to make a defense. I…

Your first paragraph is so spot on IMO, that it frightens me. We, as free thinking, reasonable people are continuously drawn into hyper-polarized debates, particularly on social media: There is no nuance (as you said), only pro vs anti (as you said II). It also seems fairly systematic, and that we are clearly being kept busy with these "debates" while we are flanked and maneuvered on.

The huge growth of fake news/misinformation and punditry-as-news in the last couple years, which really has been on the rise for decades, seems analogous to trolling. It's very difficult to have a good discussion with nuance and mutual respect when trolls are involved in a thread. Likewise it seems the general public conversation is being disrupted and dumbed down. I see the same effect you do and I think on at least some parts it's intentional.

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

#309

Post by UenoHDTV80 »

whoisjuan wrote: post #216
confounded wrote: post #163

It feels good to complain on HN, but we all will be contacting our representatives, and following the EFF’s campaigning, won’t we? Please?

Yeah. That would be good, except you will get a canned response which more or less implies that they don't give a fuck about your opinions... That's the current state of affairs.

You have always gotten the canned response. That's not the point. If enough of us complain, the representatives sometimes get scared and change their positions. But we all gotta do it. We all gotta vote too. It's a collective action problem. Don't be a free rider

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

#310

Post by huy-nguyen »

jacquesm wrote: post #253
xvf22 wrote: post #29

While Canada is excluded (so far) I'm just not comfortable going down to the US anymore and supporting this nonsense in any way. I wonder if it'll ever get bad enough where this information must be provided before an overflight.

Do you realize that alternate airports for many Canadian airports are US airports and that you could be forced to go through immigration if your plane ends up at an alternate?

I think it’s possible to seek shelter at an alternate US airport without technically entering it through immigration.

From people’s real life experience: https://www.quora.com/What-happens-to-the-passengers-and-cre...

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