All tourists will have to undergo a social media screening before being allowed entry into the US under new plans being considered by the country's border force.
According to Independent, football fans heading for the 2026 World Cup, as well as other British travellers planning visits to the US, will soon have to provide details of their social media activity going back five years.
The demand is included in a new document from the Department of Homeland Security setting out how it plans to comply with President Trump’s demand that foreign visitors should be “vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible”.
At present the application form for the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (Esta) invites prospective visitors to reveal their social media accounts, but this is not mandatory.
In the document, to be published in the Federal Register on Wednesday 10 December, US Customs and Border Protection says, “CBP is adding social media as a mandatory data element for an Esta application. The data element will require Esta applicants to provide their social media from the last five years.”
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials may inspect phone belonging to arriving travellers. As per to reports, some tourists have been turned away for making unfavourable comments about Donald Trump and vice-president J D Vance.
