The Trump administration has outlined a new plan to force tourists from dozens of countries to submit five years of social media history to be granted access to the US
Foreign tourists will be forced to hand over five years of social media history to be granted entry into the US in what marks the latest move in Donald Trump’s border crackdown.
The new “mandatory” requirement was detailed in a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) document on Tuesday outlining how the administration will comply with the president’s demand for foreign visitors to be “vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible”. The new rule is set to affect visitors from dozens of countries, including the UK, France and Germany, as it will apply to those who benefit from the visa waiver programme.
Tourists from countries eligible for the visa waiver programme are able to visit the US for without a visa as long as they have filled out an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) form. The permit costs $40 and allows stays of up to 90 days within two years.
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The current ESTA form invites prospective visitors to share their social media accounts, but this is not mandatory. Under the new proposal, filed in the Federal Register, the DHS and by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), applicants will be required to provide information about their social media accounts.
“CBP is adding social media as a mandatory data element for an Esta application,” the document states. “The data element will require Esta applicants to provide their social media from the last five years.”
The document did not go into any more detail on exactly what type of information about social media accounts will be required. However, it outlined that CBP will also add several “high value data fields” to the ESTA application.
Applicants will be asked to provide:
- Telephone numbers used in the last five years
- Email addresses used in the last ten years
- IP addresses and metadata from electronically submitted photos
- Family member names (parents, spouse, siblings, children)
- Family number telephone numbers used in the last five years
- Family member dates of birth
- Family member places of birth
- Family member residencies
- Biometrics – face, fingerprint, DNA, and iris
- Business telephone numbers used in the last five years
- Business email addresses used in the last ten years
The new proposal comes as the US is set to experience an influx of tourists next year as the country hosts the men’s soccer World Cup alongside Canada and Mexico, followed by the Olympics in 2028.
CBP officials already have the power to inspect phones belonging to arriving tourists but the new proposal could see social media activity screened in advance.
The State Department announced back in June that it would require tourists on certain visas to make their social media accounts public. In August, the administration revealed ambitions to begin screening the social media accounts of potential visa and green card applicants for “anti-American activity”.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services said that any “anti-American” activity would be considered an “overwhelmingly negative factor” during the process of deciding whether to accept applications to legally live and work in the US.
It’s unclear whether the mandatory social media information requirement for ESTA applicants would also be used to search for “anti-American” activity. The Mirror US has reached out to the DHS for comment.
