US Consider Adding Social Media Vetting To Visa Applications

US Considers Making Social Media Accounts Part of the Visa Application

I think it’s a reasonably fair thing to say that in most Western countries, immigration is one of the key factors of concern both for the government and nationals, but just how far does that remit go?

In a report via the BBC, The US Government is considering making the declaration of your social media accounts part of a Visa application.

Do you have any social media accounts to declare?

As part of the proposals, any immigrants to the US would have to disclose their identity or existence on any social media platform. This would have to extend back for a period of at least 5 years. If that wasn’t enough, then you would also have to declare any prior phone numbers, email accounts or travels within that 5-year period.

This proposal is not set to be aimed at residents of countries with immigration treaties with the US such as UK, Canada, France, and Germany. Countries that do not have such treaties, however, would be subject to these changes. The US insists, however, that it is not for the purpose of vetting social media accounts. They say that it is merely to add additional checks to a personal identity.

A strange sense can be made from this

While I suspect that the US would use this for social media vetting, there is a level of sense to this. A social media account, particularly one with a long history, is a lot harder to create or fake than, for example, a passport. Therefore, using these as an additional check does make some sense. If you have made any slurs against President Trump though, you might want to delete those before applying.

At the moment this is purely in the early stages and may never happen. It would though clearly be an interesting and controversial idea.

What do you think? Is this a good idea? Would the US use this merely to vet your social media status? – Let us know in the comments!