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US Government Begins Asking Foreign Travelers About Social Media (politico.com)
schwit1 quotes a report from Politico: Since Tuesday, foreign travelers arriving in the United States on the visa waiver program have been presented with an "optional" request to "enter information associated with your online presence," a government official confirmed Thursday. The prompt includes a drop-down menu that lists platforms including Facebook, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, as well as a space for users to input their account names on those sites. The new policy comes as Washington tries to improve its ability to spot and deny entry to individuals who have ties to terrorist groups like the Islamic State. But the government has faced a barrage of criticism since it first floated the idea last summer. The Internet Association, which represents companies including Facebook, Google and Twitter, at the time joined with consumer advocates to argue the draft policy threatened free expression and posed new privacy and security risks to foreigners. Now that it is final, those opponents are furious the Obama administration ignored their concerns. The question itself is included in what's known as the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, a process that certain foreign travelers must complete to come to the United States. ESTA and a related paper form specifically apply to those arriving here through the visa-waiver program, which allows citizens of 38 countries to travel and stay in the United States for up to 90 days without a visa. "There are very few rules about how that information is being collected, maintained [and] disseminated to other agencies, and there are no guidelines about limiting the government's use of that information," said Michael W. Macleod-Ball, chief of staff for the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington office. "While the government certainly has a right to collect some information... It would be nice if they would focus on the privacy concerns some advocacy groups have long expressed."
The NSA will already know who has what social media accounts. So this exercise is about allowing the traveler the chance to demonstrate an intent to deceive. Which will tell us which ones to keep our eyes on.
Is this measure meant for complete imbeciles or I'm missing something here?
This measure has two purposes:
1. To set a legal precedent that can be expanded later.
2. To soften up public expectations so that future government demands for social media credentials will be considered "normal".
If you want to see where this is heading, look at China's Social Credit System, where social media behavior can lead to citizens being denied access to passports, transporation, housing, education, and even some medical care.
Actually, it is different than that. Right now, if someone tries to enter the US and they are allowed to enter, discovery of a social media presence that indicates they may pose a terror threat is not necessarily grounds for deportation or removal. Thought-crime is not a crime in the US.
However, if the government requires you to disclose your social media presence as a condition of entry (remember, immigration can refuse entry to anyone based on one or more of a very diverse set of criteria available to them) and you don't, then you have lied and most likely falsified immigration paperwork. If they discover a social media presence that is you sharing pictures of your kids with your friends, it is likely that nobody will care. However, if they discover a social media presence that indicates you may pose a terror threat, they can deport or remove you prior to you committing an act of terrorism, because you have already committed one or more crimes: entering the country under false pretext, lying to immigration officials, falsifying immigration paperwork, etc.
What you say may also be true, but the reality is that the government rarely thinks that far ahead.
This assumes, of course, that we don't collectively lose our minds when the government tries to enforce actual laws.
Immigrants? Try people who just have a connecting flight in he USA to another destination. A co-worker just returned from Nicaragua and he was stopped 6 times between the arrival hall and the departure hall. Very likely because he's not white and has a beard. Either that, or his work for the central bank was so interesting everyone wanted to know more about it. And I really can't say which scenario would be creepier.
My wife really wants to visit the USA, but my enthusiasm is lower and lower. Even China has pretty relaxed border controls compared to the USA.
Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
Yes, you're missing something. They don't want to use social media accounts to discover ties to terrorism (although they may get lucky; terrorists aren't very smart), they want to use social media accounts to identify travelers that they don't need to spend resources on so that they can focus on those where they need to dig deeper. For example, someone who, according to both LinkedIn and Facebook, has been an Italian accountant for 20 years with lots of real, identifiable Italian connections is (1) likely to return to Italy, and (2) unlikely to blow people up; and such profiles are probably also difficult to fake. Presumably, they are also only starting to figure out how they want to use this data.
This it could actually help people from developing countries most, countries where police reports and other information on citizens isn't as reliable or complete as it is in Europe.
I still don't think this is going to work very well, but it's not quite as dumb an idea as you make it out to be.
Don't forget about inter-government data sharing.
Oh, this citizen of the UK uses these online user IDs, I think we'll let them know for their own records.
Not everyone even has a 'social media' presence. So no it is not lying to claim that you don't have accounts at any of those retardo web sites and it's pretty stupid as well to assume terrorists are dumb enough to post on any accounts they may have about their secret activities.
As far as anti-US web sites how the hell could the US government possibly identify who posted that info? Even if the person has their own account at an ISP and even if the ISP were willing to just give out customer information to any government that might want it it is still a ridiculous amount of work for the government with basically no chance of any real benefit.
Finally just because someone dislikes the US for bombing children or whatever does not make them terrorists and no it doesn't make them someone worth watching either. Most people outside of the US don't particularly like US policies and no the majority of human beings on the planet are not terrorists.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
They don't really have to lie. It's pretty reasonable to have one whitewashed social media account for business and acquaintance and another that you only use for close friends. Just provide the former.