If you’re hoping to apply for some kind of visa to immigrate to the US, it seems that you might need to hand over some of your social media information. This is according to notices submitted by the State Department in which it outlines the government’s plans to require nearly all visa applicants to submit five years of social media handles for specific platforms.
Unsurprisingly this move will no doubt raise some eyebrows amongst privacy advocates, plus there might be some who will argue that this could be used against them to prevent legal immigration to the US. However it should be noted that this isn’t the first time that the US has required visitors to provide some social media information.
A couple of years ago it was reported that US customs would soon require visitors to provide their social media handles upon entry to the US. Given how much information we willingly (or unknowingly) share with social media platforms, it’s not surprising that some are using it to try and get to know more about a person beyond what they put on paper.
What’s interesting is that this also comes at a time where social media giant Facebook is under immense scrutiny for its recent data privacy scandal.