US plans to introduce mandatory social media checks for visa-free travelers
Kyiv • UNN
The US proposes to introduce mandatory checks of social media history for the past five years for visa-free travelers. This concerns citizens of 40 countries who use the ESTA electronic system and raises concerns due to the predicted drop in the number of foreign tourists.
The US administration proposes to introduce a new strict rule for foreign visitors entering the country under the Visa Waiver Program: providing their social media history for the past five years as part of enhanced screening, which raises concerns amid a projected decline in the number of foreign tourists. This is stated in a message from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), published on Wednesday, Bloomberg reports, writes UNN.
Details
U.S. Customs and Border Protection plans to add social media as a mandatory data element as part of the screening process for travelers using the electronic ESTA system, which covers citizens of approximately 40 countries, including Australia, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom, who can stay in the U.S. for up to 90 days without a visa.
This plan is one of a series of measures by the Trump administration aimed at restricting entry, including a planned travel ban on about 30 countries, announced after the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington. Federal authorities identified the suspect as an Afghan citizen who arrived in the U.S. in 2021, and President Donald Trump and his allies used the incident to push for tougher restrictions on migrants, demanding a "permanent" suspension of migration from "all third world countries."
Previously, the State Department had already expanded social media screening requirements for H-1B visas for highly skilled workers, urging applicants and their dependents to "set privacy settings on all their social media profiles to 'public'", and also ordered a review of student visa applicants' social media presence.
The introduction of new restrictions comes amid a sharp decline in the number of foreign visitors and tourist spending in the U.S. Data for May indicates that the country will lose $12.5 billion in travel revenue in 2025, with visitor spending estimated to fall to less than $169 billion by the end of the year.
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