Who would have thought? Entering the US could require you to hand over your Facebook password along with your visa and passports. At least that is what is being discussed at a meeting of the House Homeland Security Committee. The measure was suggested by none other than Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly during talks that featured President Trump’s immigration ban at their center.
The immigration ban it should be remembered, focused upon the seven Muslim majority, middle-eastern countries of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Libya and Yemen. As such, this particular measure could well have been discussed with an eye to these particular countries as well.
As per NBC news, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said:
We want to get on their social media, with passwords: What do you do, what do you say? If they don’t want to cooperate then you don’t come in.
Well, what the secretary does not seem to have taken into account, is the ease with which you can create a fake account. There is literally no way of checking if the account in question is real or fake and a newly created account could easily be attributed to being unable to access the old one — due to lost password or something.
He said that the committee was also considering looking into the financial records of the people entering the country.
We can follow the money, so to speak. How are you living, who’s sending you money? It applies under certain circumstances, to individuals who may be involved in on the payroll of terrorist organizations.
Meanwhile, Kelly said that the Facebook suggestion wasn’t concrete and “was just one of the things we were thinking about”. Wow, I am just dying to hear the rest of these ‘suggestions’ — bet they are just as thrilling and original.
The previous US government — the Obama administration — actually considered something of the sort as well. However, it later discarded the idea due to obvious reasons. Let’s see what happens under President Trump’s government. Judging by its short track record, I wouldn’t like to place any bets just yet.
