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US could ask foreign tourists for five-year social media history before entry

bbc.co.uk

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Re: US could ask foreign tourists for five-year social media history before entry

#31

Post by FabCH »

voidUpdate wrote: post #20

What is classed as a social media? I expect they'd want to view by personal instagram, but what about my old business Xitter account that I can't even get into because something went wonky with the 2fa? What about my github? My HN account? Do they want to see my discord history? How will they find my accounts anyway? Not all of them are under the same account name, real name or email address

Laws are not enforced by machines, but by humans.

The answer to all of those is "yes" and they will not bother to find them, they will ask you to list them. Omitting information or providing false information on your visa application is a felony.

It's the same logic as behind the "Are you a terrorist?" question. Lying is itself a crime, and can be used to prosecute you in the future.

Re: US could ask foreign tourists for five-year social media history before entry

#32

Post by rayiner »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #4

"Officers were instructed to screen for those "who advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to national security; or who perpetrate unlawful anti-Semitic harassment or violence"." Okay, that's your job then. It's not mine or anyone else's job to just hand everything over.

That's like saying aircraft inspections is the FAA's job and it's not Boeing's job "to just hand everything over." Entering into a country's borders is a privilege and you submit to an inspection in doing so. One of the very first things the American founding fathers did in 1789 was to create a customs service to perform border inspections: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Customs_Service.

Re: US could ask foreign tourists for five-year social media history before entry

#34

Post by a-saleh »

fjghajkhdfgjlk wrote: post #21

[flagged]

On one hand, you are clearly exaggerating.

On the other hand, the actual conversations I hear my friends having about business-trips to US are more stressed than conversation my dad used to have with my mom when he was traveling to do business for banks in India, Pakistan or Russia decade or two ago.

Re: US could ask foreign tourists for five-year social media history before entry

#35

Post by akie »

bilekas wrote: post #10

I'm going to assume it's then going to be considered suspicious if you don't happen to have any social media for at least the last 5 years ?

My social media is full of rants about the ongoing trend of bringing fascism to the US and the authoritarian and repressive tendencies of the current president.

Am I not allowed to say that?

Re: US could ask foreign tourists for five-year social media history before entry

#36

Post by nness »

fjghajkhdfgjlk wrote: post #21

[flagged]

I visited in June 2025, roadtrip down the West coast. I was somewhat concerned about immigration, but surprised we were able to use the Mobile Passport Control app and utilise the fast-line to skip a 3~ hour immigration queue.

I was surprised at how few international tourists there were. I had read about a decline, but everywhere we went felt quite empty...

Re: US could ask foreign tourists for five-year social media history before entry

#37

Post by nemomarx »

s_dev wrote: post #19

[flagged]

The media is generally fairly complacent about it - the drama is good ratings material. And you can't link angry blue sky posts or substacks really.

Occasionally someone does comment about it and get flagged, ofc? and this article is part of the news about it, just like the discussion of the WB buy out and how paramount was going to offer trump control of a news channel for the same one or etc

Re: US could ask foreign tourists for five-year social media history before entry

#40

Post by dmd »

OccamsMirror wrote: post #18
bilekas wrote: post #10

I'm going to assume it's then going to be considered suspicious if you don't happen to have any social media for at least the last 5 years ?

I wonder if they'll accept "all I have is a Hacker News account".

Hacker? Straight to jail.
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