The Trump administration is proposing to ask visitors from several dozen nations that enjoy visa-free travel to the U.S. to submit additional personal information before entering the country, including five years of their social media history, the Department of Homeland Security said in a notice this week.

Citizens of 42 countries enrolled in the visa waiver program can generally come to the U.S. for up to 90 days for tourism or business travel, without needing to apply for a visa at an American embassy or consulate, a process that can take months or even years.

The list of countries in the visa waiver program includes many European nations like the United Kingdom, Germany and France, as well as some U.S. allies around the world, including Australia, Israel, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.

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[–] 100 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Surely nuking the entire tourism industry (again) will fix the economy!

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  • [–] 38 points 11 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 32 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    The good news is that pretty soon there won't be any foreign tourism to the US, so no one will have to enforce this.

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  • [–] 28 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    They really want to kill the tourism industry.

    Tank every sector of the economy possible. Amazing.

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  • [+] 26 points 11 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 24 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    So, I guess it's been foreign tourists who have been planting pipe bombs and shooting up our schools?

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  • [–] 23 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    I don't know why anybody still chooses to go to the Untied States

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  • [+] 11 points 11 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 44 points 11 months ago (15 children)

    Because we are all required to use social media?

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  • [–] 22 points 11 months ago (10 children)

    Not required to use, just access to all your social media. In addition, the rules want your phone history, including texts and 10 years of emails. Also remember, this (Lemmy) is considered social media. So, good luck if you have ever posted anything on a forum that a bunch of Nationalist Christians, or Nat-c's for short, don't like.

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  • [–] 18 points 11 months ago (5 children)

    This is why you don’t use your real name online.

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  • [+] 6 points 11 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago

    They are revamping ESTA. Currently, many countries citizens do not need a visa, but must get the electronic ESTA, to travel to the US. You can't just walk off a plane and gain entry, you must have prior approval. They are going to try to check everyone through some AI bullshit and make it hard or scary to even come to the states, denying you entry before you even get on the plane. This just fits right in with making America a bigger shithole and destroying it.

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Yes, they already do that. That said, if you have good op-sec, you're not going to have your social media on your phone. At least, not your real social media, or if you do, you'll have it behind a password they can't break and that you're not going to give them, so this is not really about getting into everyone's social media per se, it's more about providing them more excuses to detain people they don't like, increasing surveillance of people who they know are probably not really doing anything wrong to begin with, and the chilling effect that surveillance provides in controlling those people who are not really doing anything wrong.

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  • [+] 3 points 11 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago

    I know people who have had to give them the phone. It doesn't happen every time, it doesn't happen to everyone, it doesn't happen often, but it definitely does happen, and from what I understand, they can refuse you entry if you do not. I'm not in a position to say how common or widespread it is, but there are enough anecdotal stories to convince me it's probably decently widespread, albeit occasional and possibly targeted. Like you said though, no one knows what they'll do anymore, maybe just shoot you in the face. And that's kind of the point. They want that environment of uncertainty and not knowing when the bullet is going to come for you.

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  • [–] 21 points 11 months ago* (2 children)

    People need to seriously stop coming here. Pull out any and all business you are able and cut America off. If we’re going to act like a walled garden, why support it? Help keep this cancer contained and stay the fuck away from anything America or American.

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  • [–] 16 points 11 months ago (6 children)

    "I don't use social media."

    You can't prove a negative. Shift the onus back onto them. Any attempt at them trying to connect the dots should be met with "That user is not me, any similarities in their name is purely coincidental."

    Create a bogus email not tied to any social media and they won't have a leg to stand on.

    Not to mention how incredibly difficult that enforcing such a policy would be. Could you imagine the manpower required for people to trawl through 5 years of social media history searching for verboten political speech against Dear Leader? Wouldn't be surprised if they tried to use AI for this, since they'd have a hard time finding enough die-hard Trump loyalists to pack into the DHS to actually perform the background checks at the rate they would need to happen...

    Better yet, just avoid coming to this rapidly declining country in the first place.

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    But how many people are dumb enough to have their phones searched with their social media apps on them?

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  • [–] 16 points 11 months ago

    That's insane. This is insane.

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  • [–] 14 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    People should not be coming to the US. They are likely to be chained and sent back by these fascist.

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  • [–] 13 points 11 months ago*

    Just don't go there. There's no due process currently over there, at least for foreigners.

    If you absolutely need, send a robot instead of yourself. Much less hassle. :)

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  • [–] 12 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    As if people are even planning to visit. I’m not, not even when Trump is dead.

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  • [–] 10 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    This is protection. Protection for a snowflake trump administration against JD Vance memes. Egos in this government are too fragile for repeated meme attacks and therefore they must be stopped at the borders at all costs. God I wish this was a joke

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  • [–] 10 points 11 months ago

    none will be asked of RUSSIAN, Saudia arabia, UAE, israel no doubt.

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  • [–] 9 points 11 months ago

    Also US:

    Why is our tourism dead? Why does nobody want to visit our shit hole country anymore?

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  • [+] 9 points 11 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago

    There are so much more nice sites on the planet. South America has lots, New Zealand, Australia... Just to name a few. Why would I spent money to go to that place and thus supporting a fascist regime, getting profiled for nothing and be seen as a potential threat for nothing when there are so many better alternatives?

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  • [–] 14 points 11 months ago

    If you don't go, don't invest over there. You won't have to submit them anything. So like North Korea, Iran or China: stay away.

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  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago

    Hahaha eat shit Dumberikkka! How’s your tourism industry doing? Bad? Not a thing of value was lost.

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  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago

    And the rest of us boycott in solidarity.

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago

    The trump administration can kiss my dick.

    There. This is part of my social media history now.

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Can someone ELI5 why their map of visa free countries doesn't include Canada? Canada doesn't need a visa

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  • [–] 8 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Hahahahha what a bunch of thin-skinned losers

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago

    NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO MAKE FUN OF ME.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago
    [–] 3 points 11 months ago

    Perhaps 10 years ago I seriously thought that moving to USA might improve my life.

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  • [+] 1 point 11 months ago (5 children)
  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    No, you apply for an ESTA weeks/months beforehand.

    There is currently an optional box to provide social media info.

    No doubt anything you provide is reviewed by CBP in the weeks leading up to your trip.

    How the fuck they'd be able to find out if you have an account if you don't provide anything I'm not sure. Or if you don't provide them with burner email addresses.

    I suspect the tech companies will be complicit.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    I had assumed that data trawling being what it is, there's probably a clear record of all social media accounts without you providing anything. Hell, maybe even pre assessment by AI of your profile like the Chinese social rating based on what you've wrote, read and even lingered over without clicking on

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    Its fucking diabolical if that ends up being true.

    I get when it might be useful for actual visa applicants wanting to live and work there, but the prospect of being barred from going to Disneyland because I laughed at a clip of his tiny mushroom dick in an episode of South Park is just bullshit.

    All it means is I'll be not returning to America until 2029 at the earliest. Ive always wanted to visit Canada tbh

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Honestly, I suspect this is a sneaky way to get CBP access to what ever data sharing shit the social media companies have with the rest of the spooks. Simply by attempting to enter the US someone "agrees" to an automatic search of their social data.

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago

    Yea, after reading the article, this is an overall of the electronic application process that needs to happen before entry. And it'll include not just social media handles, but also email addresses. Seems reasonably easy for a "bad guy" to skirt.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    How is Chile the only country in the Americas in the Visa Waiver Program? (Minus French Guiana)

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  • [–] 0 points 11 months ago

    UK, France, Germany, and Australia all have their own editions of the sitcom "Ghosts" (UK was the original). Trump has something against the Ghosts franchise. I'm kidding, of course; Trump isn't cool enough to have heard of Ghosts.

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