Is there a legal definition of "social media"? Because I am a law abiding citizen and I would like to list all of them, no worries. A few dozens, maybe a hundred.
[deleted]
US embassy wants 'every social media username of past five years' for new visas
111–120 of 226 posts
Re: US embassy wants 'every social media username of past five years' for new visas
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand what these things are good for. If you want to enter the country illegally, overstay your visa, or perform some sort of attack, then it's trivial to lie on the forms. It's just making it inconvenient for honest, harmless travellers. Is that the goal?
The goal is to provide an excuse. Very few people will be able to provide a list of 100% of the accounts they used. This means every visitor will technically be lying on their forms. You're more than happy to visit - until you do something the regime doesn't like, like criticizing the recent attack on Iran, or making fun of the military parade. Then they have a ready-made reason to deport and ban you.
You can call yourself lucky if you're "just" deported, and not sent to (and forgotten in) some unnamed prison abroad in a random exotic country.
Re: US embassy wants 'every social media username of past five years' for new visas
#113I suspect the NSA is able to correlate any accounts already if they really want to so this seems like 'conspicuous examination' and a deliberate barrier to visitors.
F*ck em. America was built on imported foreign talent, and these stupid games will win stupid in the long term.
Re: US embassy wants 'every social media username of past five years' for new visas
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was thinking about presenting at a conference in the USA in november, but the risks and abuse associated with entrance are now so high, it's out of the question. The world can no longer center on the USA. The tr*mp administration seems to think they are inviolable, that they can solve every problem with the military. They'll be caught with their pants down. A $400 drone can now take out a $2B piece of equipment. Th…
[flagged]
Mass immigration has been a fake specter used by the right to get votes for decades now. How did it impact you, or even those close to you personally negatively?
I can tell you some positive impacts:
- Most western countries are concerned about economic cliffs around retirement benefits due to falling population. The US is not because so many people, used to(?), want to move here.
- Our food is subsidized by those willing to work awful hours at awful wages. As a humanitarian I hate this but I suspect most people would be upset to have to eat food picked at wages white Americans are willing to work.
- Most studies show more people equals more production equals more economic prosperity.
The solution to an illegal immigration problem is to loosen immigration rules and create pathways to citizenship.
Re: US embassy wants 'every social media username of past five years' for new visas
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand what these things are good for. If you want to enter the country illegally, overstay your visa, or perform some sort of attack, then it's trivial to lie on the forms. It's just making it inconvenient for honest, harmless travellers. Is that the goal?
The goal is to provide an excuse. Very few people will be able to provide a list of 100% of the accounts they used. This means every visitor will technically be lying on their forms. You're more than happy to visit - until you do something the regime doesn't like, like criticizing the recent attack on Iran, or making fun of the military parade. Then they have a ready-made reason to deport and ban you.
He didn't mention it, but I think he meant to extend it to "and how would they check/prove it?".
The practice of creating pretextual laws is well established in places like Russia, but a necessary component is proof. In fact that's the entire purpose of a pretextual law, to have something (as ridiculous as it may be) to pin on someone. I can't see any way they could prove I have this handle on Hacker News, for example.
Re: US embassy wants 'every social media username of past five years' for new visas
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
This has been policy since the Obama admin, where have you been? e: they downvoted him because they hated the truth.
You sure you mean Barrack Obama, the 44th president of the USA? He's on record for disallowing this explicitly. The Republicans got quite a knot in their panties over it, too [1]. [1] https://www.aei.org/foreign-and-defense-policy/terrorism/pol...
[deleted]
Re: US embassy wants 'every social media username of past five years' for new visas
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
to play the devil's advocate, if more people wanted to visit the US than the other way around, then it's not "disadvantageous" for the US to do this.
This kind of adversarial nonsensical thinking is the problem. It's disadvantageous for the US if their citizens have to go through more bullshit whenever they are visiting another country. Regardless of how much they subject people going to the US, or how many people travel either way. It's a lose lose pissing contest. The reason reciprocity is exercised is to discourage this kind of thing in the first place.
I don't think the people in support of such things are travelling very much.
Re: US embassy wants 'every social media username of past five years' for new visas
#118Re: US embassy wants 'every social media username of past five years' for new visas
#119It seems to me one of the methods of control in oppressive States is to have a multitude of rules, which are impractical to actually adhere to, where failure to adhere provides leverage to State - a "justification" for State to then do whatever it is it decides to do with you (such as deportation without due process).
They're called "pretextual laws", and are prevalent in places like Russia and China. They always require proof though, since the whole point is an easy case in court.
I can't see an easy way to prove someone supplied an incomplete list of online handles though. It would be trivial for me to look up all the places I've supplied my real e-mail address and make sure to include them in the list, and good luck finding my handles otherwise.
Re: US embassy wants 'every social media username of past five years' for new visas
#120Haven't these guys heard of the "reciprocity principle"? When I went to Brazil a few years ago, the basic price for a tourist visa was like $25 and could be done online. But, if you were a US citizen, it cost $150 and you had to schedule an attend an interview in person -- because , those were the costs and burdens placed on Brazilian citizens to apply for a US visa. Does the US want other countries inspecting our ci…
I’d guess this administration draws its power from voters who don’t have a passport and power brokers whose staff handle visas. (Or at least it operates as if it believes it does.)