Any social media accounts to declare? US wants travelers to tell The US Department of State wants to ask visa applicants to provide details on the social media accounts they've used in the past five years, as well as telephone numbers, email addresses, and international travel during this period. The plan, if approved by the Office of Management and Budget, will expand the vetting regime …
"You appear to be geographically challenged. Would you like some help with that?" no I am good
Being expert at colouring in was never my thing and to be frank Canada is about the only place on that continent I care about and only because it has all the good things the UK used to have but gave up pretending to be the US
Whilst this would evidently be an infringement of personal information it is somewhat pointless in that it may be difficult to prove one was lying if one declared not to have a Facebook, Twitter or YouTube account. The stipulation applies to countries like China and Iran where such platforms are often blocked anyway. Indeed China mostly resides in a kind of Intranet with homegrown services such as RenRen, Sinaweibo and Youku replacing the above services. That said most people in China are hooked to Weixin (also known as WeChat) and is essentially peer to peer, for the most part, so knowing your 'handle' would be of little use. This is also rediculous in that the US would have little to glean. A real terrorist is not going to give their real terrorist social media accounts anymore than they're going to check the box saying they have been involved in such activities.
Well seeing as they may want to do this to us, let our countries respond likewise.
It’s a tit for tat world out there at the moment and damaging invasive requests like this just help drive a wedge between countries. I feel that America is trying to put up its own iron curtain and re-start the cold war.
If they do manage it then oh well we shall so miss them too -it will reduce the noise over here....hehehe
Where do they draw the line? And what counts as a suspicious LACK of accounts? Everybody is deleting Facebook or at very least, censoring it to the point of it looking suspicious... what else do they want to know about?!? I've got "social media" accounts in the form of forum memberships, but that includes stuff for cars and dishwashers that I got rid of 15 years ago.... several hundred forum memberships in total.... and no Instagram/Twitter/Picasa, etc... I'm probably going to get grief for having some type of accounts and not enough of others...
Now what if your current employer decide to send you over & they take a shufty at your facebook page, and up pops a message from a friend from 6 years ago full of things that go boomz, goatse and tubgirl stuff, and based on that they decline your visa?
Whose fault would that be?
I have a twatter and faceboob account, but both are used so seldom nowadays.
If they need me to tell them what accounts I use then what are their spies doing with all the data they collect? If I was a terrorist would I tell? Of course not. Mind, that never stopped the idiots having a question about being a member of a terrorist organisation on their old visa waiver.... wonder if Jerry Adams said yes or no?
As to my international trips... I really really dont have time to put them all in... one or two a week every week and not to the same countries.
Guess I will just have to say no to any trips to the USA
It's OK for the US Government to arm known terrorists in Syria.
To have waged a War Of Agression against Iraq and Libya with no evidence.
To threaten NK for having the temerity to want to defend themselves.
The sanction Iran because their pharisee friends in Israel demand it.
But messages on social media pointing this out might result in us being refused entry to the land they stole from the native American Indians?
Well, that's one way to kill tourism and business I guess. Bye bye America, I liked you better before you became a military police state with places like Guantanamo Bay, outside of even US law.
If 20 years ago someone had told me I'd feel safer today visiting Russia than America I'd have laughed in their face, but that day arrived some time ago.
I’m an American Indian (that’s what it says on card I must carry 24-7) and can live on both sides of the border - I will leave determining that up to you. Need no visa to be in US. And my hearing aids need the paired app om my iphone. And these inept, pedantic fools can peremptorily grab my phone? Is my password keeper a social app? My pwds are unknown to me without it. What a moronic policy. And there is NOWHERE NEAR the smart staffing in existance to handle this mess
I've not been over to the US from the UK for some years, but I have two half-sisters there, that I would like to see again. What is the implication for UK citizens ? Does this apply to me or not ?
Fingerprints are bad enough but my entire data history.... Probably enough to stop me going.
So, not only do they want lower tourist numbers, they also want a lower quality of tourist? I doubt your average Daily Mail reader* is exactly the last of the big spenders, when on that annual Flori-duh holiday.
* Daily Mail reader perhaps used as a euphemism for the Nothing to Hide/Nothing to Fear brigade.
FYI, our politicians and media DO NOT represent the citizens, only themselves.
And most of us in the US know that what we see on media about other countries is likely as much BS as our is. What does "the media say about the UK?" you might ask-
All the bugs will kill you, there are everywhere, knives are illegal but everybody has one and stabs people every day. Guns were taken away so Muslim radicals can rape women and girls at will, and they do all the time without prosecution. Everyone's teeth are crooked.
Now I am sure that is not normal life in the UK, but that's what the media says it is.
15 years ago the UK was all crocodiles, before that it was all Mad Max. - normal life that is. Don't let the media be your judge of other people, I don't.
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