Anyone intending to apply for a US visa will now face the additional step of surrendering their social media handles, after it was announced the State Department will require such information before agreeing to proceed. The move is a “vast expansion of the Trump administration’s enhanced screening of potential immigrants and visitors,” with the options listed ranging from Facebook, to photo platforms such as Instagram and Flickr.
As per the Associated Press, this has been a rule for quite some time. However, it had previously only applied to a certain category of passenger, such as those with links to countries rife with terrorist organizations and activity.
Said to be an attempt to “improve the screening process and confirm the applicants’ identity,” the new enforcement requires applicants to provide details of their own accord for any social media network not listed in the application form. Previous email addresses and phone numbers that have been active in the past five years are also required.
After initially being proposed back in March of last year, the extra security measure has now been introduced, and will be applied to both immigrants and non-immigrants, including anyone traveling to the U.S. for business and/or education. It’s anticipated that some 15 million foreigners will apply for a US visa this year.
The US State Department said:
National security is our top priority when adjudicating visa applications, and every prospective traveler and immigrant to the United States undergoes extensive security screening. We are constantly working to find mechanisms to improve our screening processes to protect U.S. citizens, while supporting legitimate travel to the United States.
Lead image: Markus Spiske on Unsplash.
And this is about photography/videography, how?
Seriously, we can (and do) get this kind of news anywhere and everywhere. We come here for information related to our specific industry... and this ain't that.
Background info: Although international tourism to the US rose slightly, it bit only Turkey since 2015 (Turkey is -3% and the US is +0.5). Tourism to the US is suffering due to a few reasons however, U.S. policy and rhetoric are two of the main reasons.
Many of those potential tourists are photographers. Since photographers are known to use many social media platform for their work (or hobby) those could be potentially important news.
First phones being searched and now social media. More people, as well as photographers, might rethink their visit to the US.
Every profession uses social media.
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Might not work for you in the long run...
Photographers frequently travel internationally to create photos. Whether it is on assignment or for stock photography, photographers generally try to skirt the regulations regarding tourist or work visas. The new regulations will make it more difficult or risky for a professional photographer from other countries to claim they are traveling on vacation while carrying any kind of equipment.
This regulation will likely be reciprocated by many other countries in the future for US photographers traveling abroad. This has been informally in effect for models traveling to the US for the past couple of years.
How many more dots do we need to connect for you?
It’s related to digital rights, security, and 1st amendment protections for artists and journalists. Until very recently, anyone on US soil regardless of nationality, generally had Constitutional protections. That is no longer the case in the US.
Fstoppers has a global audience and its newsworthy what level of privacy they will now have to forfeit to visit, study, and work in the US.
You may think this is a good idea or not, but requiring this in no way violates anyone's constitutional rights. These are people applying for a visa to enter the US, and the US can impose whatever conditions it likes on who it decides to let in or not. The same thing with extending citizenship.
I still think that, much like the "wall" it's meaningless and won't actually do what it purports to do. Nevertheless, just because something's dumb doesn't mean it is illegal.
But just because something's dumb, I can decide to boycott travelling to this country. It's not illegal and there are enough other beautiful places on earth to enjoy nature and photography.
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I don't care, it's a free world isn't it? They seem not to want foreigners in their country, why the hell should I bother and try to travel there? It was enough being nearly stripped searched in front of everyone prior to boarding a flight to Atlanta, where I would just be in transit for 2 hours, so I really, really don't need the grief again.
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I know I look suspicious. I have a beard and a middle eastern name. I don't need to be arbitrarily detained somewhere when I just want to go take pictures. That's why I skipped the solar eclipse.
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I didn’t say it was illegal. I said it was newsworthy to photographers.
The article indicates that applicants are asked for their "handles", not their passwords. Given that social media postings are public information, this doesn't seem like an intrusion into privacy.
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And it will be hard to make any link to a real person life.
Social media are so far from individual reality. It's a show where every face and picture is photoshoped/staged to fit the media purpose. ;-)
However, with some recent mass shootings in the US, one could find red flags on the shooters social media pages ( after the fact). Same with some international terrorism incidents.
Every HR department reviews applicant’s social media pages ( or hires firms who do such). Employers would be nuts not to do such. Same with allowing people in and out your country.
If you are one that leaves your doors unlocked 24/7, doesn’t do background checks for nannies of your children, then I give you credit for at least being consistent. However, if you do lock your doors and check the backgrounds of your children’s caregivers... then you are being quite hypocritical.
Well, most of people killed by guns in the USA were not by new visa applicant, but by American residents. Most of them did not died in a mass shooting. Firearms were used to kill 13,286 people in the U.S. in 2015, excluding suicide for example.
How many mass shooting from new visa applicant publishing their terrorism allegiance on Facbook on these? 0.1%?
Good to take care of the minority of possible terrorism when there is already so much killing within the country without any link to terrorism.
I think you are missing my point. I'm not saying technology could have stopped any of those disasters from happening. However, if the tools are there to help improve security, they should be used. As technology and times change, the things around it does as well. Traveling by airplane has changed quite a bit post 9/11. Now everyday people, landlords, etc can do background checks on potential employees, clients, etc right on their computer instead of having a service perform such that could take weeks. Why shouldn't international borders do the same? There are ways for regular US travelers to bypass long international gateway wait times and long screenings (global entry cards, TSA prescreen, etc).
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You sound suspicious to us. Please post all your email and social media passwords here for us so we can examine your posts and make sure you're not a terrorist posing as a concerned American...
Seems like it would be rather easy to get away with not declaring your platforms. Unless you're a pro photographer with a well googleable presence where you display some landscape images from your last Arizona vacation, and then they say 'so you were actually working on that vacation visa ?'.
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They can see it anyway, No idea what the issue is.
Appart from being ridiculous.
I have no intention of going to the Soviet Union of America before the end of my life.....
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This seems more like a totalitarian tactic to accumulate more information about people than a way of reducing terrorism in any significant way. If the USA would redirect the money they use on most anti-terror measures to provide better/cheaper health care, to reduce poverty and to improve gun control, more lives could be saved every couple of years than have been lost in terror-related attacks around the world in the last 100 years!
A major problem with many modern anti-terror measures are that they are what experts call "security theatre", i.e. they do not really improve security but it looks like action is being taken. "Look how much we do to prevent terrorism!"
We have, unfortunately, succumbed to the idea that we have to curb people's freedom to a previously unthinkable extent to stop every possible terrorist attack, despite this being impossible. If we look at the Founding Fathers of USA and their ideas of freedom, I think they would not be able to find it in modern-day society.
It seems that the terrorists have in fact won — most of the world is now living with an irrational fear of a fate that has been and still is extremely unlikely.
People who build walls around them forget one thing: they end up living in a prison.
It's called a home.
If only cancer and heart disease could have Instagram and Facebook accounts………
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Is fstoppers subsc. valid as well...?