Oversight
The Trump Administration Is Using Social Media to Vet Visa Applicants
Forcing people to turn over their online accounts could discourage them from applying for a visa at all. And that may be the entire point.
The Trump administration issued a sweeping policy last week that will force foreign visa applicants to submit all their social media handles from the previous five years to the U.S. government. It’s a chilling directive — implemented in the name of “security” without any evidence it will help — that will have adverse effects on the privacy and free speech rights of tens of millions of people worldwide.
Anxiety and privacy fears of those traveling to the United States is already extremely high thanks to the Trump administration’s draconian immigration and visa policies. The U.S. has also been implementing several other high-tech surveillance mechanisms at the border like facial recognition and iris scans. This new policy, which was announced by the State Department at the beginning of June, will violate core rights of those who want to visit the U.S.
Forcing visa applicants to turn over their social media handles will impact an enormous number of people. Fifteen million people apply for U.S. visas every year…
