Proposal to Screen Tourists' Social Media Accounts in U.S. Presents Challenges
Skift Take
Who in their right mind wants to waste government workers' time and sanity to screen the social media accounts of tens of millions of visitors every year when there are home-grown wack-jobs spouting even more dangerous things every day?
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security submitted a proposal this week to screen social media profiles of all international travelers entering the U.S., including those part of the Visa Waiver Program.
If implemented, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security would add a line to Forms I94 and I94W, the latter for visa waiver travelers, that asks for social media identifying information such as a Twitter handle or Facebook profile name.
Offering up any social media information would be voluntary, which critics such as U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan from Florida say makes the proposal toothless. Buchanan is sponsoring a bill that would make it mandatory for all international visitors to provide their social media identifiers. That bill is still being reviewed and hasn't had any votes.
The proposal states, "It will be an optional data field to request social media identifiers to be used f
