US Ordered 'Mandatory Social Media Check' For Visa Applicants Who Visited ISIS Territory (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has ordered a "mandatory social media check" on all visa applicants who have ever visited ISIS-controlled territory, according to diplomatic cables obtained by Reuters. The four memos were sent to American diplomatic missions over the past two weeks, with the most recent issued on March 17th. According to Reuters, they provide details into a revised screening process that President Donald Trump has described as "extreme vetting." A memo sent on March 16th rescinds some of the instructions that Tillerson outlined in the previous cables, including an order that would have required visa applicants to hand over all phone numbers, email addresses, and social media accounts that they have used in the past. The secretary of state issued the memo after a Hawaii judge blocked the Trump administration's revised travel ban on citizens from six predominantly Muslim countries. In addition to the social media check, the most recent memo calls for consular officials to identify "populations warranting increased scrutiny." Two former government officials tell Reuters that the social media order could lead to delays in processing visa applications, with one saying that such checks were previously carried out on rare occasions.
Vacation?! If you can afford a vacation, you're a rich asshole who deserves to be killed by pitchfork impalement.
What if I don't have any social media accounts. And what constitutes a "Social Media Account"? Is this just the big ones like Facebook and Twitter? Or does it include all of the off-shoots that tweens are into these days like Instagram, SnapChat, etc.? How about defunct Social Media Accounts like MySpace?
Does it include ANY website that you communicate, like our very own Slashdot, and any random forum you belong too for hobbies, and GitHub and other sites that facilitate communicating with others over certain topics?
The reason for this is to find "terrorists", but how many terrorists are dumb enough to give over their accounts that they use to actively proclaim jihad on the world with? I understand you have to vet people for certain things, but I'm not sure how this will really help, being that it sounds like it's on the "honor" system that you are being truthful and turning all of your accounts over. It also has the flaw in that it assumes that you have Social Media accounts to begin with which many people do not.
Pitchforks! Pitchforks for sale!
Are the pitchforks sharp? They need to be sharp enough to disembowel all the billionaires. It's hunting season!
Some checking on people who have been in war zones with our stated enemies. Seems specific enough in target and restrained enough in scope.
*ever*???
Personally, I know I wouldn't even be able to begin to comply with this kind of demand. I don't remember all of the old phone numbers I've had. All social media accounts? Does that include aliases on bulletin board systems from the 1980's? Again, I couldn't comply because I don't remember them all. I probably have about a half dozen expired email accounts at old internet service providers, some of which don't even exist anymore, where I can maybe remember half of them.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
You need a visa to return to the US after vacation? Or did you miss that part of the full title.
Non-citizens who want to take a vacation with our enemies have volunteered for a little extra scrutiny when they then want to visit us.
We have war zones.
I think I'm just going create a bunch of porn profiles with just dick pics to hand over and see what their biometrics think of that. Just being a Good Samaritan. Have a few with cartoony smiley faces and AK-47s. If they turn it down, it's not my problem. It tried. If everyone did that, they'd stop just like they did when people pulled their pants down at airports a decade ago. You'd hope anyway. One of the male agents just smiles at you. Cavity search. :( Says he needs more "biometric data."
But but but all-american corporations can't have their h1b employees harassed!!!
Hah! Government/biz connections run deep. Marketing tool for Facebook 'nuff said.
Quiet, don't interrupt the two minutes hate.
Let them stay over there and we can kill em there.
Any information you hand over is you consenting to a search. They will make feel like you can't get into the country without a social media account. That's not true. It's just a scare tactic. Worst case, by a shitty $40 Android, get a Twitter account, then throw the fucking thing away. Any one asks, you lost it and forgot the password. If you gotta do it again, who cares. You already spent hundreds of dollars flying. I wanna know where are all the NAACP related groups and protestors on this? Anyone noticed that? Not a single one. It's just 9/11 united in hatred and ignorance bullshit group think all over again. The only difference is, the previous voters and the next round of legal voters weren't even alive or only 3 years old when it happened. God only knows what they told them in school about it. That's a scary thought. Can we not have a republican dictator that justifies his actions based on religion or the need to feel like Patton? Has the U.S. EVER had a republican leader without starting a war during his term? How's this any different from the 1950s red scare bullshit? The ONLY people with the authority to deal with terrorism are also the same people with the ONLY means of identifying and labeling such activities. It's all bullshit to control people with fear. Keep people in church, keep people stupid by making education expensive, and keep them scared.
Just why would you "vacation" in areas controlled by ISIS?
Are you also ne of those idiots that go hiking along the border of Iran?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Reuters version -- "applicants who have ever been present in territory controlled by the Islamic State" * (link)
Verge version -- "applicants who have ever visited ISIS-controlled territory" (link)
Parent version -- "applications from people who like to hang out with ISIS" (above)
* Comprised in the majority of citizens who were victims, prisoners, kidnapped, abused, forced slaves and wives, i.e., any brown-skinned refugees.
We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
The secretary of state issued the memo after a Hawaii judge blocked the Trump administration's revised travel ban on citizens from six predominantly Muslim countries.
The ban is for six predominately islamic extremist countries. Are you bigoted against Muslims or something?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Knowing that we won't have to worry about people who say upsetting things on Twitter.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Just as true...
FTFY
I'm not sure. Given the region, am I supposed to haggle?
Ezekiel 23:20
The Bannons of this administration have proclaimed that Sweden, France, Germany, UK, etc are occupied by Islamist terrorists.
Trump's dad, Putin, basically sees Ukraine (sorry, I mean eastern Russia) as a crime state controlled by Nazis.
So basically you're going to say all of Europe must face this extreme Twitter vetting.
Where's my White House appointment?
But shouldn't Saudi Arabia top that list, followed by Turkey and only then Iran and any other 'extremist' countries?
America's bedfellows are the biggest terrorist supporters in the Middle East, bar none.
Most emails and social media logs are stored in the USA but what will they do about phone numbers, which tend to be geo-locked? Are countries of the world going to provide free surveillance to keep the USA safe?
Isn't the USA already profiling visitors? What does "increased scrutiny" mean?
If so many ISIS sympathizers are broadcasting their intentions, why not have a section of DHS perform push-button policing on FaceBook and Twitter? Or, like before, will only edge cases have their social media posts scrutinized?
Please confirm that people who visited Birmingham UK, and Brussels, BE - Both ISIS strongholds will get extra scrutiny. I can admit to having visited Brussels on multiple occations.
To me it doesn't seem like it serves any purpose at all except to act as more bureaucracy and another excuse to turn "undesirables" away for infringing some petty and onerous rule.
Are you worried that law enforcement, border control or even the prospective in-laws could want to take a look at your Facebook, your Twitter, your Instagram? We have the solution for you!
We whitewash your official social media pages, keep them updated with goodie-two-shoes stories (your choice how much saccharine is to be added) to make it look active and not a fake profile, while you open up your very own, private social media account where you can be yourself all you want. Your future mother-in-law wants to get access to your private Facebook pages, locked from public viewing? Your future employer wants to violate your privacy and demands you hand over your Facebook details? Now you can show them what they want to see. And decide what they should see.
We can even make it appear that you're friends with key people in your business, our SEO-professionals are standing by!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Are the pitchforks sharp? They need to be sharp enough to disembowel all the billionaires. It's hunting season!
No, but all the better, right?
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
I admire billionaires. I seek to be rich like they are. Why wouldn't you? Do you like being a poor chump?
I most certainly am. I don't want them in the United States. THey are some of the worst people in the world. Stupid, ignorant, violent, culturally backward. They are America's first enemy. Always have been. This is a Christian nation. They don't belong here.
This will absolutely work. Those idiot terrorists would never be clever enough to create fake profiles.
There aren't enough of you, and we are armed. No, the US will always give worse than it gets.
No, it was the Obama administration which decided people who have visited Middle Eastern Warzones warranted extra screening. And social media checks have been a standard practice for border guards for years now.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
Yes, of course. The point of these questions is not just to acquire information, it's also to get you to provide false information, i.e. lie. Then you can be easily charged with lying to immigration authorities.
Personally, I know I wouldn't even be able to begin to comply with this kind of demand.
Well that's too bad.
Does that include aliases on bulletin board systems from the 1980's?
If someone else can still prove that you had this account, yes.
What the Obama administration decided was that people from visa waiver countries who have visited certain countries, other than on diplomatic and some business visits, could not come to the US on the visa waiver program for 5 years. The "extra screening" was to apply for a visa in advance, and have the same screening as other non-visa waiver visitors.
I admire billionaires. I seek to be rich like they are. Why wouldn't you? Do you like being a poor chump?
Personally, it's because I believe that behind every great fortune is a great crime. You can't accumulate money at that scale without fucking people over in some way.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
Non-citizens who want to take a vacation with our enemies
So, that includes Red Rross, MSF, and other NGO staff and volunteers who "took a vacation with our enemies" too?
---
"I can't complain, but sometimes still do..." Joe Walsh
It is generally considered bad form to complain about someone not reading something, when you yourself also did not read something.
How do I know you did not read something? Because of these lines:
You: Non-citizens who want to take a vacation with our enemies
TFA: U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has ordered a "mandatory social media check" on all visa applicants who have ever visited ISIS-controlled territory
Emphasis mine. You seem to think it only impacts people going forward., but this sounds like it will impact people who visited such countries even before those countries were our enemy.
> What's that you say? You do not have a Facebook, Twitter or Instagram
> account yet? But you don't want to look like you're trying to hide
> something in your next job interview or your next trip abroad?
Duhhh. I is a dumb lib-left American. Email is so hard that it hurts my puny little brain. I couldn't use email to correspond with people. What was I to do?
But then, a very good friend of mine told me about Facebook. Its interface is so dumbed down that even a dumb American lib-leftie like me can use it. Thank you Mr Zookerberg for making a Facebook just for me.
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
A pitchspoon will hurt more.
That's pretty fucking sad.
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
About bloody time. Anybody who "Vacations" in ISIS territory falls into one of three categories:
1. Liberal Christians about to become martyrs.
2. People who have become radicalized Islamic Jihadi going there to train for suicide missions.
3. Aid workers.
Examining their social media accounts will quickly sort them into one of these three groups, and allow us to stop #2 from traveling.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Good. They've been our enemy a heck of a lot longer than we've recognized that they were an enemy- in many cases with hatred for the west going back over 1400 years.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Examing the nature of searches that take place at our boarders gives a hint of the strategy the US is using to weed out terrorists. It is apparent that the US government hasn't figured out:
1. It is possible to have multiple social media identities
2. The entire Internet is ISIS territory
3. Harassing people who want to enter the US is bad for business
Given the near total spectrum surveillance that we know the US has over the Internet thanks to Snowden, I'm surprised things are so ham-fisted. There are much better ways to do this, I hope (and it's all I can do, because of secrecy and lack of accountability) that the balance is more towards using this capability for good, and less on stalking ex's and personal gain.
Sure you can when you inherit daddy's millions. It's like some people believe they actually work for their money. When you inherit daddy's fortune you pay other people to commit the crimes.
Yeah who would have thought a region that in those 1400 years experienced multiple crusades and other horrors not so ominously named would hold a grudge against the people who perpetrated it for so long?
Eh? Muslim scum invaded Europe, then you got the crusades.
> They've been our enemy [...] in many cases with hatred for the west going back over 1400 years
Unless we use them to combat the commies, in which case they are the brave Mujaheddin, the Freedom Fighters.
Don't get me wrong. I detest Putin and his power politics. Also Assad, the IS and all of 'em. But USA power politics (and their allies) haven't been much better. Less so if you include the last 70 years.
And don't get me started on Europe before that.
If they're then applying for a visa to come to the US, they aren't US citizens. So we should have the discussion about the usefulness of this type of vetting. Maybe we decide we still don't do it, but try not to confuse this with screening US citizens returning home.
For example, US citizens headed to ISIS or other foreign locations unfriendly to US interests may need to run through voluntary screening before and after their trip. This ensures we're not trampling their rights, and at the same time not aiding the enemy by being complacent.
'US Ordered 'Mandatory Social Media Check' For Visa Applicants Who Visited ISIS Territory'
So, does this mean that if I happen to travel through the Midlands or London in the UK on the way to an airport to visit the land of the Arbeitmachtfrei I'm fecked?
Not that I agree with any of this crap, but making that kind of exception is bad security.
If you eliminate a group from scrutiny, won't it become an attractive loophole for the bad guys?
Don't forget journalists, who will also have to hand over their social media logins...
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
This belief of yours...is it motivating you to seek out legitimate means of making a fortune, and to act on them?
Or is it motivating you to not even bother trying, and hence to remain poor for your entire life?
Our values drive our decisions, which in turn determine our results. Sometimes a little optimism, even if naive, can drive the decisions that get good results.
You are assuming said screening involves you giving up your passwords for your accounts. If you are a US citizen they cannot do that legally. Of course they will look to see who has posted against Trump and harass them for a good long time before finally letting them back in.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Seriously, if somebody has visited a place like Pakistan, Iran, OR ANY NATION NEXT TO THESE, and is not from there, it is far more likely that they are up to more than simple vacationing.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
"take a vacation with our enemies"? That's either deliberate Trump-like misrepresentation, or plain old stupidity. You certainly made a good call posting it as AC.
And it should be obvious by their social media activity who they are. Same thing applies for this fourth category.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Completely agreed. But from THEIR point of view, even when we were arming them, we were the enemy.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
For the first 700 of those years, there were no crusades. But there were the invasions of North Africa, Gaul (Spain), Byzantium and Sicily, not to mention Israel. All Islamic
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
And there's something wrong with that? (The part about extra scrutiny for non-citizens who want to visit us.)
This doesn't address the American citizens who want to go visit the warm friendly beaches and cities of ISIS-occupied territory, of course. Not that they'd make it clear where they were going when they left anyway. (How _does_ one get a visa for Syria or western Iraq anyway?)
It appears in this country that ISIS is currently controlling how our decisions are made, so the U.S. is effectively under ISIS control.
You seem to know everyone's point of view. Such a genius you are.. not to mention, how cute you would look in that point white hat..
For the first 700 of those years, there were no crusades. But there were the invasions of North Africa, Gaul (Spain), Byzantium and Sicily, not to mention Israel. All Islamic
622 - start of Islamic calendar
715 - conquest of Spain
1096 - First crusade arrives in the Levant
So if with 700 years, you mean about 400... sure :-)
(a 300 year difference might not feel like much in this context, but note that the US declaration of independence was well less than 300 years ago...)
(Please also note that Israel was founded in 1948 so is well outside this timeline, and if you mean the biblical Jewish kingdoms, they were conquered by the Romans well before the Muslims. AFAIK there were no jewish-ruled territories conquered by the Muslims, see e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...)
If DHS ever expanded this to include American citizens who travel abroad and need to re-enter the US, I'd never be able to leave the country without risking prison for omitting hundreds of email addresses and website logins from the disclosure form. Why? I've used SO MANY email addresses and website logins over the years, I couldn't accurately disclose 90% of them EVEN IF I TRIED. And frankly, it would be a cold day in hell before I ever did it voluntarily, because even IF I trusted the government to act with 100% professionalism and good faith, there's always the risk some future activist hacker group might get a hold of it and ruin the lives of a few hundred million people for shits & giggles by posting it all online.
As it stands, I'm effectively trapped in the US -- unable to even visit Canada, Mexico, or the Bahamas -- because a fucking 3-day vacation would derail my life for weeks before and after the trip. At the VERY LEAST, I'd have to buy a throwaway phone and laptop, spend days configuring both, and dump them at a loss on eBay afterwards (on the likelihood that Customs & Border Control installed advanced persistent malware on one or both capable of surviving anything I could realistically do to remove them, and neither would ever be trustworthy again).
Ironically, the one website account I'd have few qualms about disclosing to them is Facebook, mainly because I use it so infrequently, and disclose so little, they'd probably think it was a throw-away burner account even though it's actually my real one.
You need a visa to return to the US after vacation? Or did you miss that part of the full title.
Non-citizens who want to take a vacation with our enemies have volunteered for a little extra scrutiny when they then want to visit us.
I think you've missed the bit where they don't need an additional law to check a citizens social media... They've been doing that for years now.
Due to the fact that visas are an intricate system of international agreements, they have to follow procedures to do this kind of thing to non-citizens.
Also, how dumb are the people who come up with this kind of security theatre. So a terrorist goes through years of training and indoctrination just to blab about bombing the US on Facebook. Its dumber than the laptop ban. So Achmed the tablet bomber cant fly direct from Ankara to London with his rigged Ipad... I'm sure he's said, "OK fellas, they've stopped us. We cant bomb the great Satan any more so lets just give up" instead of flying from Ankara to Sofia where he can bring is tablet, then from Sofia to London, again, with said tablet. I mean it's not like Bulgaria is right above Turkey or anything.
If this was a credible threat, why is it not being applied to everyone... from everywhere.
Besides, I'm certain they'd never think of creating a clean social networking profile to fool customs and immigration.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Or the pitchspork
I really don't want that job.
Learning to see things from other people's point of view is how I have learned to cope with my High Functioning Autism. It is a useful people skill that has led to promotions at work. I suggest you try it.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Thank you for both correcting my point with more accurate data while making my point.
I meant really the Christian Israel under the Byzantine Church, but the point is well made- Christendom was slow to anger by 4 centuries of insult, and it was the Islamics who attacked first.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
This belief of yours...is it motivating you to seek out legitimate means of making a fortune, and to act on them?
Or is it motivating you to not even bother trying, and hence to remain poor for your entire life?
Our values drive our decisions, which in turn determine our results. Sometimes a little optimism, even if naive, can drive the decisions that get good results.
It's driving me to work a well-paying professional IT job and not think much about raising a fortune. I save for retirement, but that's different. Where I live we still have a decent sized middle class. My choices are not between making a fortune and being poor.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
I admire billionaires. I seek to be rich like they are. Why wouldn't you? Do you like being a poor chump?
Yes, there's a valid dichotomy. My four-year-old granddaughter constructs more-nuanced arguments than that.
Do you like being a poor thinker?