Visa Applicants' Social Media Use Targeted By State Department, Could Cover Past 5 Years

U.S. government officials may require visa applicants to provide information on the social media accounts they used in the past five years, the Department of State said in a note posted Thursday.

The move is in line with President Donald Trump promise throughout his campaign to implement “extreme vetting” procedures for those entering the United States.

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The State Department proposed requesting “social media platforms and identifiers, also known as handles, used during the last five years.”

“The request for social media identifiers and associated platforms is new for the Department of State although it is already collected on a voluntary basis by the Department of Homeland Security for certain individuals,” the State Department said.

State said applicants will not be asked for passwords and officials will not engage with visa seekers via social media.

“Consular officers will not request user passwords and will not attempt to subvert any privacy controls the applicants may have implemented on social media platforms,” the note said. “Consular officers are directed not to engage or interact with individuals on or through social media, not to violate or attempt to violate individual privacy settings, and not to use social media or assess an individual's social media presence beyond established department guidance.”

When people apply for a visa, they also could be asked for employment and travel history and former addresses covering the past 15 years, as well as names and birth dates of siblings, children, and current and former spouses or partners, plus phone numbers and email addresses.

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Most of that information previously had been requested from applicants by U.S. officials but for a shorter time period, for example, five years rather than 15 years.

The new requests for visa applications described in the note, including the one regarding social media accounts, has yet to be finalized.

The proposed request for social media accounts follows a December report that foreigners coming into the United States were being asked to provide their Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts when arriving in the country.

Individuals coming into the U.S. under the visa waiver program, which allows citizens of 38 countries to travel and stay in the United States for up to 90 days without a visa, had the option to enter information associated with their online presence. The request includes a drop-down menu when filling out the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, which lists social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and Google+, and has space for applicants to input their account information.

The request was designed to detect potential terrorists.