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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.
He has destroyed our freedoms.
TERRORlST STATES OF AMERlCA BURN IN HELL
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.
The White House, D.C., is definitely a terrorist-controlled territory.
Some checking on people who have been in war zones with our stated enemies. Seems specific enough in target and restrained enough in scope.
After the Wikileaks bomb about Apple, we now know why Timmy is trying to move iPhone production to India, out of China! C.I.A. hacked the fabrication-production plants in China. Timmy changing shorts does not solve the problem.
Unfortunately for Timmy, the fabrication-production plant in India IS HACKED, and was hacked even before the poring of the cement for the bricks of the buildings foundation! Ha hahahhahahahahahhh
Timmy can't move the fabrication-production plant to Africa! Why? To Much Extortion Money!
So Timmy, his only escape is to move the fabrication-production plant to ... Antarctica!
Good luck with that, Timmy!
Hahahahahahheheheheoehohohohohoahahhahahaha
*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'
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."
Hah! Government/biz connections run deep. Marketing tool for Facebook 'nuff said.
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.
Uh Oh.
Timmy, Jony, and the Board, are now standing in a very deep pile of human Doo Doo.
Hahahahahahahahhheheheheehoehoehoheoheoheoheh
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
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?
Penises. Penises! PENISES!! Yes, Penises, infact not just any Penises, but actually the finest Penises available, Black Penises, jammed good and hard right up your ASS. What say you?!
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.
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.
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'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
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.
'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?
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.
It appears in this country that ISIS is currently controlling how our decisions are made, so the U.S. is effectively under ISIS control.
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.