Foreign Tourists May Need to Pass Social Media Inspection

Foreign tourists hoping to enter the US under its visa waiver program may soon have to hand over a lot more than an email address and phone number. Under a proposal filed Tuesday, Customs and Border Protection says it plans to collect up to five years of social media history from travelers eligible for the visa waiver program, which covers short-term visits from 42 countries including Britain, France, Germany, and South Korea, per the New York Times. Applicants would also be asked for email addresses from the last 10 years, plus the names, birth dates, birthplaces, and places of residence of their parents, spouses, children, and siblings.

This would mark a "paradigm shift" from current rules, where applicants under the Electronic System for Travel Authorization program pay $40 and provide basic contact and emergency information for a two-year authorization, with social media mostly used to verify facts, Bo Cooper, a partner at immigration law firm Fragomen, tells the Times. Now, a traveler could be denied entry for something they wrote online, he notes, adding this could bring longer wait times.

Sophia Cope, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, adds mandatory social media disclosure "has not proven effective at finding terrorists and other bad guys." Instead, it hurts free speech and invades the privacy of innocent travelers and their US family members, she says. This follows other proposed changes, including a $250 "visa integrity" fee for many visitors (though not those using the visa waiver program) and expanded social media checks for certain work, student, and scholar visas. The travel industry has pushed back, warning millions of potential visitors could be deterred. CBP will take public comments on its latest proposal for 60 days, per NBC News.