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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

#41

Post by BLKNSLVR »

What of those who have virtually no footprint?

Almost the only thing I have is LinkedIn, which is always only as up to date as the last time I changed jobs, which I don't do often.

No Facebook, insta, snap, twitter, tiktok. I subscribe to maybe five channels on YouTube.

My HN account isn't linked to my main 'identity' email address so I could hide it just by having a clean phone (which I do for international travel anyway).

I feel like I'd be suspicious due to the lack of traceability. I've had work colleagues say that they couldn't find a trace of me online (although that was a while ago now, and not colleagues who are adept at online sleuthing).

My age may be just enough to be believably not terminally online.

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

#42

Post by shafyy »

So, hypothetically, if I were to say that the Israeli government is committing genocide and Trump is a fascist, would they not let me in? Well, I don't want to travel to the US while it's reigned by a fascist government anyways, so let's go: The Israeli government is committing genocide and Trump is a fascist.

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

#44

Post by fluidcruft »

mothballed wrote: post #17
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.

Sure but they'll make your day extremely unpleasant before deporting you or if a USC letting you in. A few things that's happened to me as a citizen after invoking right to remain silent to CBP 1) Told I could not enter the country. Held up for 3-24 hours in holding areas. Officials come in and claim they will revoke my passport under "national security"-esque grounds. Lots of bluffing and huffing and puffing. Diesel…

To clarify: CBP is Canadian Border Patrol and you are a Canadian citizen re-entering Canada when this happened?

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

#45

Post by embedding-shape »

huhtenberg wrote: post #27
embedding-shape wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then they'll do a quick lookup to confirm if you actually don't have any accounts, and if they find any, they'll reject you because you lied. US agencies already are keeping track of what individuals have what online accounts, so they're asking to confirm, not to learn. If you truly don't have social media, their search won't show any hits, and there isn't much you can do about it. Just make sure you're actually answ…

How exactly are they going to link accounts with no real names, personal info or identifiable emails to a person?

Literally all data coming in/out of the US (lots of it, even between other countries sometimes routes in-between US network transit points) is kept, and considering the possibilities that just private companies have today by dealing with data brokers and others offering "social media protection" (or whatever they call it today), it's hard to even imagine what the government and its agencies can do.

Did we really forgot about what happened back in 2013 so quickly? Did people assume all these agencies suddenly stopped doing what they've been doing for decades? Nothing you do on the internet with regular network connections are hidden to these entities, don't live falsely under the impression that you can.

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

#46

Post by watwut »

akie wrote: post #35
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?

You are suppressing free speech of fascists by doing that. Your speech might make them feel bad and free speech is defined by your willingness to defend fascists.

As an enemy to free speech, you wont be allowed in.

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

#47

Post by yolo3000 »

rckt wrote: post #30

This whole thing worldwide will lead to division in the society and to people having secret social media accounts. Only the most lazy and stupid ones will be handing over their private data to any gov security forces.

With so much browser fingerprinting and the biggest social networks being US companies, I wouldn't be surprised if already a company like Palanti has a dataset with all your history

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

#48

Post by mothballed »

FabCH wrote: post #31
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.

I think the point to many of those questions/requirements are to ensure absolutely everyone can be prosecuted or deported because it's basically impossible to complete the immigration process or just about any other complicated government process without doing something that could possibly be construed in the most uncharitable way as being answered incorrectly.

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

#49

Post by BLKNSLVR »

dmd wrote: post #40
OccamsMirror wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Hacker? Straight to jail.

No no, spend three months in an untraceable maze of ICE holding facilities, then to jail, then deported to a 'shithole' country that you didn't come from in the first place.

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

#50

Post by mothballed »

fluidcruft wrote: post #44
mothballed wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure but they'll make your day extremely unpleasant before deporting you or if a USC letting you in. A few things that's happened to me as a citizen after invoking right to remain silent to CBP 1) Told I could not enter the country. Held up for 3-24 hours in holding areas. Officials come in and claim they will revoke my passport under "national security"-esque grounds. Lots of bluffing and huffing and puffing. Diesel…

To clarify: CBP is Canadian Border Patrol and you are a Canadian citizen re-entering Canada when this happened?

Customs and Border Protection in the USA
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