cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7003237
cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/12825
Visiting the US as a tourist could soon become significantly more onerous under a new plan being mulled by the Trump administration.
According to a Tuesday report in the New York Times, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) this week filed a new proposal that would force visitors to submit up to five years’ worth of social media posts for inspection before being allowed to enter the country.
In addition to social media history, CPB says it plans to ask prospective tourists to provide them with email addresses they’ve used over the last decade, as well as “the names, birth dates, places of residence, and birthplaces of parents, spouses, siblings, and children.”
The policy would apply even to citizens of countries that have long been US allies, including the UK, Germany, Australia, and Japan, which have long been exempt from visa requirements.
Sophia Cope, a senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told the Times that the CBP policy would “exacerbate civil liberties harms.”
Cope added that such policies have “not proven effective at finding terrorists and other bad guys” but have instead “chilled the free speech and invaded the privacy of innocent travelers, along with that of their American family, friends and colleagues.”
Journalist Bethany Allen, head of China investigations at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, expressed shock that the US would take such drastic measures to scrutinize the social media posts of tourists.
“Wow,” she wrote in a post on X, “even China doesn’t do this.”
In addition to concerns about civil liberties violations, there are also worries about what the new policy would do to the US tourism industry.
The Times noted in its report that several tourism-dependent businesses last month signed a letter opposing an administration proposal to collect a $250 “visa integrity fee,” and one travel industry official told the paper that the CBP’s new proposal appears to be “a significant escalation in traveler vetting.”
The American tourism industry has already taken a blow during President Donald Trump’s second term, even without a policy of forcing tourists to share their social media history.
A report released on Wednesday from Democrats on the Senate’s Joint Economic Committee (JEC) found that US businesses that have long depended on tourism from Canada to stay afloat have been getting hit hard, as Canadian tourists stay away in protest of Trump’s trade war against their country.
Overall, the report found that “the number of passenger vehicles crossing the US-Canada border declined by nearly 20% compared to the same time period in 2024, with some states seeing declines as large as 27%.”
Elizabeth Guerin, owner of New Hampshire-based gift shop Fiddleheads, told the JEC that Canadians used to make up to a quarter of her custom base, but now “I can probably count the number of Canadian visitors on one hand.”
Christa Bowdish, owner of the Vermont-based Old Stagecoach Inn, told the JEC that she feared a long-term loss in Canadian customers, even if Trump ended his feud with the nation tomorrow.
“This is long-lasting damage to a relationship and emotional damage takes time to heal,” she said. “While people aren’t visiting Vermont, they’ll be finding new places to visit, making new memories, building new family traditions, and we will not recapture all of that.”
From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
Can’t they just pull it up from Big Tech? And what about those who don’t have social media?
what about those who don’t have social media?
Believe it or not, straight to jail
Can’t they just pull it up from Big Tech?
Yes but this is just as much about submission than it is the actual accounts.
If I don’t share it, I can’t visit the USA, nor if I share it, that’s why this is obsolete for me anyway. FTUS 🖕
Trump to burn anyone / everyone to shill his self interests. His voting followers believe that his social and economic policies will save their lives and souls. The following will be pushed: Extreme capitalism works. Filter down economy works. The brown to black people are the problem. The women need to be kept under control. Anyone other than hetero male or female is evil. Social healthcare is communism. Socialism is communism.
Immediate harm to almost every American tourism based businesses plus whole towns and cities that rely upon tourists.
Not that I was planning to visit the US anyway but I guess this seals it
America; Now with more fascism.
I wasn’t planning to ever set foot on that shithole countries soil ever again. Now it’s sealed. America is fucking doomed.
Are they going to give them a security clearance after that background check? That’s the level of questioning that they are asking for at this point.
And at the same time I’m sure they asked less of some of the clowns this administration DID give a security clearance.
There are definitely some at the top who shouldn’t have a clearance, especially Trump. He has way too many red flags that would normally keep him very far away from classified information.
not like i planned to pay a visit with global southerners like me being sent to torture camps.
you can keep your fascism thank you very much, i’m fine over here.
It’s okay, I’m Australian, my government’s got me covered.
In what way? I thought Australia is pretty far usa’s butt
But they’re deleting my social media.
Oh true. I find it so crazy that like every western country tries to take control of the internet like its in any way manageble. Either they have to all agree on one way to control things which will not happen, or they will have to create country wide Intranet with very strict separation. There is no other way to enforce their stupid ideas. If we think their current ideas through it has to end in total control and dystopia. I hate it
It ain’t just the west?
The great firewall of China has existed for decades now.
Japan just tried to limit video game time
Does it?
…and if you don’t have any?
They’ll probably treat having no social media as suspicious even if it’s true and deny you entry
The plan also includes sharing of mail addresses and phone numbers you communicated with in the last 5 years. Everybody has that.
Lie about all of it.
Uhm, are you sure?
WTF
Category B nonperson. You can collect a train ticket at the counter. Staff will assist you.
there should be a fake social media site that just has nothing but pictures of pickles and topics of pickles. Then all visitors can just put that as their only social media account. Real pickles, not dicks.
What about pickled dicks?
Sonofabitch, I’m in!
It’s just me or the website is down? Doesn’t load for me
It’s worse than that:Just you
North Korea the mother fucking fascist fucks are making us worse than North Korea.
trump is a product of propaganda just as much as any other westerner (especially so of any american) and propagandized people are going to lash out like this when reality starts dispelling the fantasies that have defined their world views.
propaganda like antifa boogeymen is taking root again like north korean authoritarianism already has and reality will displace both eventually; guaranteeing that there will be more fascists in the future lashing out to protect both.
