US State Department begins social media screening for nearly all visa applicants

https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/01/u-s-state-department-begins-social-media-screening-for-nearly-all-visa-applicants/

by DVassallo • 7 years ago

54 34 7 years ago

axaxs• 7 years ago

My wife mentioned this to me yesterday, and I laughed and said I guess it wouldn't have affected me anyways as I don't really do much social media (unless you count this as social media). Now I'm beginning to wonder if they'll assume you're lying if you said that, or somehow more suspicious...

sambull• 7 years ago

Sounds like currently more of a black box to deny anyone a VISA that can't remember every website they signed up for in the last 5 years.

mdanger007• 7 years ago

If you put "RT ≠ Endorsement" on your profile, you should be safe.

astronautjones• 7 years ago

like so many other laws, it will be selectively used mostly on certain ethnicities/groups

PeterStuer3• 7 years ago

It is worse. You can laugh until you realize that absence from social media is perceived as highly suspicious.

sys_647382• 7 years ago

Would you immediately be rejected for the visa if you don't have a Facebook page?

ganeshkrishnan3• 7 years ago

Yes, your application will be flagged. I just commented above on how my toddler's application was flagged due to lack of social media profiles.

The only saving grace is that they don't/can't verify that you really own the social media profile. You can just put in Mark Zuckerberg's profile and apply

Swizec• 7 years ago

I used my social media as a supporting argument for an O1 ama.

That said, requiring it for everyone seems heavy handed and feels wrong. I can’t quite put into words why, however.

And I bet most people who have not dealt with visas will just say “Well if you have nothing to hide ...”

GarMan• 7 years ago

I can’t tell if coming through with a B1 or B2 with globs entry is included in this.

_iyig• 7 years ago

I think there’s likely a reasonable expectation of privacy somewhere, such as for private posts or protected tweets (which the measures FTA would not necessarily examine). At the same time, if someone’s sharing their support for ISIS on Facebook, I sure hope authorities would take notice and act accordingly.

curiousgal• 7 years ago

This is what happens when you believe you're the greatest country in the world and that anyone trying to visit is up to no good and just wants to overstay their visa and take advantage of your amazing system.

The reality couldn't be any further from that!

ccrush• 7 years ago

If the reality couldn't be further from that, how do you explain that nearly everyone in the world thst wants a better life comes to the United States?

graeme• 7 years ago

Do you have any numbers to support your statement? I just looked up migration stats from the UN, and found:

1. The vast bulk of migrants do not go to the US

2. International share of migrants has grown much faster than the US share

The US has a large overall number of immigrants as it is a large country, but per capita many countries are taking in more. Canada takes in about 3x per capita for example.

PeterStuer3• 7 years ago

'Everyone in the world' does not. That you think that shows your incredible myopic bias.

jeena2• 7 years ago

That is what basically every country says about themselves:

- https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article177733806/Neue-EU...

- https://www.metro.se/artikel/nej-eu-planerar-inte-att-placer...

microcolonel3• 7 years ago

What? America's great and a lot of people indeed try to overstay visas and take advantage of the system. This is an easily established fact.

Just last week, a thousand people in one solitary moment on one day formed a line and forced their way into the country for the privilege of being an unwelcome, tenuous inhabitant; that's how much some people want to be in the U.S.

This is the wrong line of argument if you just want to say that it's inappropriate for the government to scrutinize social media posts as part of the visa application process. You're setting yourself up to defend an unnecessary point rather than the actual argument.

pryce2• 7 years ago

It is an historical fact that the United States has profoundly and repeatedly screwed over nearly every single nation south of it on the two American continents, starting coups to topple democratically elected governments, invading, supporting dictators, and destroying economies over the last century. I think claims about economic migrants and/or refugees that don't acknowledge this background are absurd.

But now I'm physically reluctant to type out this fact, because it could conceivably jeopardize my next visa application.

The values and freedoms that people picture America stands for, and that it bases its claims to legitimacy on -freedom of thought and speech, democracy, for example- aren't values that America has any interest in upholding for people outside its own borders, instead it repeatedly shows contempt for them; and in the case of dozens of minorities (ethnic, religious, gender and sexual) it shows little interest in upholding these values and freedoms for its own citizens.

It's mind-numbing to me that Americans speaking to non-Americans who might begin to encounter reasons why American foreign policy in particular is littered with atrocities will now be even less exposed to that information of that because of the chilling effect of social media screening.

sys_647382• 7 years ago

American people are wonderful and there is no better place to be IMO but the current government is not representative of this great majority. Please don't blame us all for Trump and his cretins.

mavelikara• 7 years ago

Yesterday the U.S. State Department began implementing its requirement that nearly all U.S. visa applicants submit their social media usernames, previous email addresses and phone numbers as part of the application process.
These new obstacles to immigration come at a time ...

If I understand this correctly, these are not obstacles to just immigrate to USA; these are obstacles for visiting USA.

ganeshkrishnan3• 7 years ago

these are not obstacles for visiting USA; these are obstacles even if you are just transiting through USA.

DVassallo• 7 years ago

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated..." — The United States Bill of Rights

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all [people] are created equal..." — The United States Declaration of Independence

JetSpiegel• 7 years ago

The people applying are not citizens, so ʾthe people' doesn't mean those particular people.

pmoriarty• 7 years ago

Expect tit-for-tat responses from other countries for Americans trying to visit them.

dang• 7 years ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20065142

burtonator• 7 years ago

"Sure.. check out my blog. lemonparty.org"

... actually. We should/could setup a group collaboration site on a different shock URL that's close to this which would have plausible deniability if you gave them the shock URL.

"OMG! I mean lemonparties.org.. not lemonparty.org... WTF"

microcolonel3• 7 years ago

I wonder if not having any social media presence would be a problem; I think that would be the more insidiuous thing. Social media posts are, effectively, publications; whether they tell you it's policy or not, it's likely that they would (and perhaps should) look.

My main concern is that they would be suspicious of people who don't publish their every thought on the internet.

ganeshkrishnan3• 7 years ago

An interesting anecdote: Even if you are transiting through US you need a transit visa. So we were flying from Australia to Canada with a change of planes in US and we had to get an ESTA visa.

The visa application requires you to enter social media profiles for major platforms including facebook, twitter etc but there is no way for them to verify it's really yours. We did fill up ours but for my two year old toddler I just marked as no social media profile.

The lack of social media profile on one of the application meant the whole application was flagged delaying our ESTA. I would have assumed that the system would have a check to allow no social media for people younger than 13 (or 16)

vinni2• 7 years ago

I had no problem getting ESTA approved without mentioning any social media accounts within an hour!

PeterStuer3• 7 years ago

They already have access to 100% of social media. This is just to have a plausibly official second source.

voidwtf• 7 years ago

IMO this is how social media ends itself. As real world consequences become less distant and people have to be more ‘politically correct’ where being ‘politically correct’ is a function of which political party is currently in charge, people will use social media less and less. Social media will just become another outlet for ‘mainstream media’ and sycophants.

It’s been difficult to see anything positive in the social media sphere lately. I closed my Facebook account nearly 5 years ago because it just felt like a toxic influence. My reddit account nearly 6 years ago met the same fate.

These days I can only stand using Discord and WhatsApp for conversations with people I know IRL. I can’t imagine my kids ever being interested in most social media sites as they’ve already skipped most social media services to talk to their friends directly in video games like Minecraft and Roblox and using iMessage in group conversations.

oliwarner• 7 years ago

Or, this is how Facebook replaces US Customs and Border Protection.

I reckon Facebook could do a pretty good job at that. Deep network checks, location history, call logs, content history (if they're active on the sites you browse). Terrifying but through. Makes the NSA look like a nosey neighbour peeping over the fence.

US State Department begins social media screening for nearly all visa applicants

Related Stories