Administration
Foreign tourists to the U.S. could be required to disclose the past five years of their social media activity if a Tuesday rule proposed by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is approved.
“In order to comply with the January 2025 Executive Order 14161 (Protecting the United States From Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats), CBP is adding social media as a mandatory data element for an [Electronic System for Travel Authorization] ESTA application,” the federal register announcement reads.
“The data element will require ESTA applicants to provide their social media from the last 5 years,” it continues.
Travelers from 42 countries eligible for the visa waiver prog…
Administration
Foreign tourists to the U.S. could be required to disclose the past five years of their social media activity if a Tuesday rule proposed by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is approved.
“In order to comply with the January 2025 Executive Order 14161 (Protecting the United States From Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats), CBP is adding social media as a mandatory data element for an [Electronic System for Travel Authorization] ESTA application,” the federal register announcement reads.
“The data element will require ESTA applicants to provide their social media from the last 5 years,” it continues.
Travelers from 42 countries eligible for the visa waiver program would be impacted by the proposal, which aims to collect “baseline biographic data” through the addition of several “high value data fields.”
Visitors could be asked to provide their telephone numbers used in the last five years, email addresses used in the last 10 years, in addition to IP addresses and metadata from electronically submitted photos.
Public comment on the proposal will remain open for 60 days.
The effort is the latest example in the Trump administration’s tightening of immigration enforcement since the president returned to office.
Currently, eligible foreign tourists are allowed to visit for 90 days without a visa, as long as they first obtain the $40 electronic travel authorization.
The White House has cracked down on criticism spread on social media in recent months, targeting foreign college students and professionals for removal following political remarks.
In March, a French academic was denied entry before being deported back to Europe for posting messages critical of the Trump’s administration’s research policies.
In April, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said applicants’ social media accounts would be flagged for antisemitic content as grounds for denying any immigration benefits.
By June, the State Department announced that foreign student visa applicants would be required to make their social media accounts public for vetting or face potential denial.