Newly adopted visa regulations by the United States now would mandate that each and every new application for a US visa would also have to be accompanied by the social media details of the applicant.

A regulations adopted by the US State Department, all US visa applicants would be required to provide all of their social media names and their email addresses and phone numbers that they have used in the last five years.

According to the estimates that were made last year by authorities when this proposal was made, this new regulation would potentially impact about 14.7 million people every year.

The stringent new visa measures would however not be applicable for some specific categories of diplomatic and official visa applicants. But all those individuals who want to visit the US for work or study related purposes would have to provide all of these information to the US authorities.

“We are constantly working to find mechanisms to improve our screening processes to protect US citizens, while supporting legitimate travel to the United States,” the US State Department has reportedly been said.

Prior to adopting these stricter visa regulations, this measure was only applicable for those individuals who sought to enter the US who had been to some other specific parts of the world such as those that are under the control of terrorist groups. Such individuals earlier needed to hand over such data to the US authorities earlier.

But now according to the new visa vetting policy, almost all visa applicants would have to share details about their account names that they have on all social media platforms that are listed by the US authorities as well as voluntarily give up the details of any other account on any other site that are not on the list of the US authorities.

According to an US official who spoke to The Hill said that any applicant who fails to or intentionally does not give up details about their social media use could be faced with “serious immigration consequences”,

The rules were first proposed in March 2018 by the Trump administration.

When the proposal was made, it was opposed to by the American Civil Liberties Union – a civil rights group – which had back then that there is “no evidence that such social media monitoring is effective or fair”, and added that this would result in applicants being forced to self-censor themselves online.

One of the key points for the US presidential election campaign in 2016 for current US president Donald Trump was illegal immigration. During the campaign, Trump had called for “extreme vetting” of immigrants and had reiterated his views and intention after assuming office.

Late last week, Trump threatened to impose import tariffs on all products imported into the US from Mexico – initially at a rate of 5 per cent which would automatically increase by 5 per cent a month to till it reaches 25 per cent by October unless Mexico takes enough measure to curb illegal immigration at the Southern border of the US.

(Adapted form BBC.com)

Categories: Geopolitics, Regulations & Legal, Strategy, Uncategorized