The US administration has said it wants to start collecting the social media history of nearly everyone seeking a visa to enter the US. The new proposal from the state department published in the Federal Register yesterday said visa applicants would require to disclose all social media identities used in the past five years including the details of their Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Applicants would be asked for five years of their telephone numbers, email addresses and travel history. They would also be required to say if they had ever been deported from a country, or if any relatives had been involved in terrorist activity.
The information would be used to identify and vet those seeking both immigrant and non-immigrant visas. However, the proposal would not affect citizens from countries which the US grants visa-free travel status among them the UK, Canada, France and Germany.
The proposal comes after President Trump promised to implement “extreme vetting” for foreigners entering the US to combat terrorism.
