The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is considering a new policy which would request that foreign visitors to the United States voluntarily provide their social media accounts for the feds to peruse. Travelers would be asked to give "information associated with your online presence," including usernames on any social media network where they are active.
The department argues this information would "enhance the existing investigative process and provide DHS greater clarity and visibility to possible nefarious activity and connections by providing an additional tool set which analysts and investigators may use to better analyze and investigate the case."
But the plan is already subject to pushback. It's "very unclear what [federal officials] plan to do" with the information they would collect, said Joseph Lorenzo Hall of the Center for Democracy and Technology. After all, he added, the government has "a really horrible track record interpreting ... comments on social media, and interpreting them as meaning grave threats."
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