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US embassy wants 'every social media username of past five years' for new visas

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Re: US embassy wants 'every social media username of past five years' for new visas

#91

Post by throwawayffffas »

chii wrote: post #30
gwd wrote: post #13

Haven'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…

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.

Re: US embassy wants 'every social media username of past five years' for new visas

#92

Post by msgodel »

mrtksn wrote: post #88
msgodel wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vaccine mandates were far more oppressive, and I'd argue the individual healthcare federal mandate was also far more oppressive. this only affects non-citizens. If the federal government were going around asking for citizens social media I'd be more inclined to agree with you. That's not what they're doing though.

I don't know how the vaccine mandates were enforced in US but two wrongs don't make it right. Why do you think that it affects only non-citizens?

1) You said this was "the most oppressive policy." I gave two examples of more oppressive polices.

2) The vaccine mandates were enforced by having employers fire you for failure to comply with it. It was actually pretty terrible.

3) Visa holders are non-citizens by definition.

Re: US embassy wants 'every social media username of past five years' for new visas

#93

Post by potato3732842 »

mrtksn wrote: post #79

Amazing. Do you people understand that this is the most oppressive policy ever among any country? In American movies dictatorships are portrayed as regimes that are able to control every aspect of their citizen's lives but in real life dictators don't do that. This is why there's the myth among the alt-right about how free Russia is. In real life, only the relevant people are bothered and the rest do whatever they wa…

The problem is that people don't actually do enough stuff that puts them in adversarial contact with the government to realize how terrible it all is.

Re: US embassy wants 'every social media username of past five years' for new visas

#94

Post by ujkhsjkdhf234 »

msgodel wrote: post #78
childintime wrote: post #72

Earlier 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]

What problems are you talking about? Be specific.

Re: US embassy wants 'every social media username of past five years' for new visas

#95

Post by potato3732842 »

crote wrote: post #80
RecycledEle wrote: post #10

This is only possible of you ignore decent security precautions and rarely use different user names. They are literally saying that only those who lie or have garbage security practices can get Visas.

> They are literally saying that only those who lie can get Visas. Yes. And if everyone with a visa has lied on their application, anyone with a visa can be deported at any time when it becomes convenient.

Not everyone. They can only do stuff like this a little bit. If they use it too much the courts will strike it down.

Same with every other abuse of government power. Not that that makes it better.

Re: US embassy wants 'every social media username of past five years' for new visas

#96

Post by saagarjha »

hagbard_c wrote: post #53
casenmgreen wrote: post #5

It 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).

You're describing more or less every legal system in existence for at least the last few centuries. It is often close to impossible to go through a day without breaking at least one law, usually a multitude of them. Such infractions are not acted upon until some power-that-be deems it necessary to get a handle on a person. As to the sudden insistence on due process when it comes to deportation of illegals I do wonder…

That's not what due process means.

Re: US embassy wants 'every social media username of past five years' for new visas

#97

Post by derriz »

gwd wrote: post #13

Haven'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…

In this case, what has Ireland done to US citizens that this reciprocates? Ireland has a special deal for US citizens - no visa is required for visits up to 90 days - you just turn up and show your passport.

I'm not convinced that this is truly about actually protecting the US from terrorism or foreign attack since all major terrorist acts that I can recall over the last few decades were perpetrated by native-born US citizens and not by visitors on visas.

It seems more about catching people who might have, for example, expressed an opinion that doesn't align with "they deserve it" with respect to Palestinians in Gaza - which currently seems sufficient to be branded "a threat to the US" and grounds for detention and expulsion.

Re: US embassy wants 'every social media username of past five years' for new visas

#98

Post by ujkhsjkdhf234 »

msgodel wrote: post #92
mrtksn wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how the vaccine mandates were enforced in US but two wrongs don't make it right. Why do you think that it affects only non-citizens?

1) You said this was "the most oppressive policy." I gave two examples of more oppressive polices. 2) The vaccine mandates were enforced by having employers fire you for failure to comply with it. It was actually pretty terrible. 3) Visa holders are non-citizens by definition.

> 2) The vaccine mandates were enforced by having employers fire you for failure to comply with it. It was actually pretty terrible.

When I was a kid, I had to have certain vaccines or I couldn't enroll in elementary school. Is that oppressive in your view?

Re: US embassy wants 'every social media username of past five years' for new visas

#99

Post by mbirth »

JimDabell wrote: post #33
bonoboTP wrote: post #9

I remember that there was such a text box even on ESTA applications several years ago, but it was optional. This article uses the word "required" but it doesn't give a direct quote saying that it truly is mandatory, it reads a bit waffly.

Yes, I last visited the USA in 2019, and my ESTA application included fields to list social media usernames. I thought it was interesting that GitHub was listed as a social media site.

Usernames only? There’s someone living in the US not being able to write their own gmail address correctly. Thus, I sometimes get things like confirmations of hotel bookings they did.

What if you get flagged because someone else used your username to post stupid things? Will you even be informed of the offending posts and have opportunity to defend yourself?

This requirement doesn’t make any sense.

Re: US embassy wants 'every social media username of past five years' for new visas

#100

Post by zczc »

littlestymaar wrote: post #52
chii wrote: post #30

Earlier 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.

Until you realize that tourism industry is a multi-billion dollar industry and the US used to be one of the biggest tourist destination of the world (only behind France and Spain).

Looks like the new requirement is only for F, M, and J student and exchange visas that already need more paperwork, not for B-1/B-2 tourism and business visas.
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