At a time when travel to the US is already in decline, a new US Government proposal seeks to require international visitors to disclose their social media history for the past five years.
The new rule would apply to visitors from the 42 countries currently eligible for the visa waiver program, including Australia, New Zealand, the UK, France, Germany, Japan, and South Korea, among others.
The plan would form part of an updated process to obtain an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) for entry into the United States.
According to a proposal filed by the US Customs and Border Protection, the CBP would collect personal information including five years of social media activity, 10 years of email history and full family details, like relatives’ (including children’s) names, birth dates, birthplaces, telephone numbers and places of residence – on top of the current information it requires to issue an ESTA.
In addition, it would request biometric information (face, fingerprint, DNA and iris), as well as business telephone numbers used within the last five years and business email addresses used within the last ten years.
The CBP states that the updated ESTA questions are necessary to comply with a January 2025 Trump executive order, which mandates stricter checks to ensure visitors don’t hold “hostile attitudes” toward the US.
A request to search the social media profiles of visitors wouldn’t be unprecedented. Per the American Embassy and Consulates in Australia website, the country already requires “all individuals applying for an F, M, or J nonimmigrant visa [for temporary study or exchange]… to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media accounts to ‘public’ to facilitate vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the United States under U.S. law”.
According to The Guardian, the US is also tightening other rules for foreign visitors, adding a US$100 daily fee at major national parks and scrapping free entry on Martin Luther King Jr Day, while keeping a free-for-residents day on Trump’s birthday.
Elsewhere, the US plans to introduce a new $250 “visa integrity” fee for many travellers, though those from visa-waiver countries won’t have to pay it, The New York Times reported. In November, 20 tourism groups warned the fee could deter millions of visitors, including those travelling for events like next year’s World Cup.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data released last month revealed that US-bound travel fell by a significant 13% year-on-year in September.
