No, but there are several laws that could enforce disclosure of such activity, especially at the border. If a trivial automated web search can prove you failed to disclose anything on your entry papers, then you can forget your visa waiver (and likely find yourself on a nice database of people to monitor). Obviously they say disclosure is “optional” now, but that’s just one word that can be dropped the first time some random terrorist is found to have engaged in particularly stupid social-network activity.
If there is one thing people with “inner-big-brother” know very well, is how to turn anyone into a criminal.
It takes very little to slip when you start engaging in this sort of opsec, and at that point you’re even more “of interest” because “why did you lie?”
“Should other nations that follow U.S. travel standards also request social media information in customs and immigrations processes?”
What, there are other countries that behave in a comparably paranoid way?
Does anyone already know how that social media question will be phrased? And what the definition of “social media” is for that purpose?
And does anyone have any concept of what “suspicious online behavior” could constitute grounds for refusing to grant a lets-not-call-it-an-entry-visa-so-those-silly-europeans-don’t-notice-they’re-being-duped*?
* No, there’s not actually a German word for that hyphenated monster.
How long do you think it will remain optional? How often does the government voluntarily relinquish a power that it was given or that it took, and how often does it seek to expand that power?
Again, for how long? If this goes through I give it four or five years, tops, before it’s quietly expanded to all travelers.
Where “optional” means… what?
That a privileged European like myself can bet his $3000 vacation to the US on the hope that when they say “optional”, they really mean “optional”, even though at the same time they say they can reject me for no reason whatsoever should they have a bad day?
The field has to be there for someone. Someone is being pressured into giving up this information.
Exactly. Which is why I’m taking it personal.
It is customary for countries to require visas on a reciprocal basis; Americans can enter Austria without a visa. Our own politicians haven’t yet had the spine to call the US on its bullshit and require visas.
Sure, Austria is officially on the list of “Visa Waiver” countries. But that’s just a visa by another name. Apply in advance, pay a fee, etc. They just use a different word.
And now they want to add an infringement on my fundamental human rights to the list. Of course, they will just ask me to give up my rights voluntarily.
East Germany, 1986. For Austrians to get into East Berlin as tourists, they made you wait in line, fill out forms, pay fees. To me as a five-year-old the line seemed terribly long, and the wait was boring. US border checks always reminded me of that.
The East Germans did not ask for social media accounts, of course. But what would have been an equally rights-infringing question back then?
Can you point us legally to any interesting resources that might contain the kind of thing your grandfather would teach? Both of my grandfathers died when my parents were children.
No this not direct teaching but a story from my mom about a library book (a bio on Che Guevara I think) checked out while I was still in utero so in the late 60s. He called her and said next time go to the bookstore and pay cash.
Saying that the bio of Che is a problem to read would be hypocritical, because to know the content they would need to have read it themselves.
My problem with this social media push is that it puts people in the position of needing to prove a negative. There cannot be conclusive evidence that one does not have a social media presence.
Also that what I read and/or write can reflect a rhetorical position, rather than some sort of official testimony or affidavit. The Fed are well aware of this and conduct themselves the same way.
Canadian customs has been doing this for a while. My wife’s punk band is on a label based in Portland. While on tour about four years ago, they had a date scheduled in Vancouver. It was a free house party show. In order to play in Canada, American musicians are required to obtain a work visa. Getting a work visa a lot of trouble to go to if you’re not planning on making any money. So they stashed their instruments and merchandise with a friend in the US and arranged to borrow another band’s gear for the party. Canadian customs found their social media accounts and denied them entry without a work visa.
Once upon a time, the symbol of America was a magnificent French colossus, given in the spirit of international friendship, standing vigil on the edge of the sea with imprisoned lightning to light the way for your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free to come and add their dreams to a great impetous experiment in the laboratories of democracy.
Now it’s an incompetent slob in a meaningless joke of a uniform searching your Facebook page for pictures to circle-jerk over while an orange-haired buffoon panders to racist bigots for making America a farce of freedom.
“One last thing,” said Beatty. “At least once in his career, every fireman gets an itch. What do the books say, he wonders. Oh, to scratch that itch, eh? Well, Montag, take my word for it, I’ve had to read a few in my time, to know what I was about, and the books say nothing! Nothing you can teach or believe. They’re about nonexistent people, figments of imagination, if they’re fiction. And if they’re nonfiction, it’s worse, one professor calling another an idiot, one philosopher screaming down another’s gullet. All of them running about, putting out the stars and extinguishing the sun. You come away lost.” - Captain Beatty, Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
is dastardly enough to do the same!