If you are planning to visit the U.S. any time soon, be prepared to disclose all your social media account details used in the past five years should you be applying for your visa, according to a new proposal issued by the Trump administration.
The information obtained from visa applicants will be used to vet through those seeking both immigrant and non-immigrant visas. Additionally, telephone numbers, email addresses and travel history would also be requested for.
The Trump administration will require all visa applicants to also say if they had ever been deported from any country, or if any of their relatives had ever been involved in terrorist activity.
The proposal would not affect citizens of countries that are entitled for visa-free travel into the U.S., including the U.K., Canada, France and Germany. This means that us Malaysians who do require a visa will not be exempted.
Officials defended the proposal mentioning that it would help identify potential extremists, partially the result of the San Bernadino shootings in 2015 whereby signs of radicalisation in messages between the attackers were missed.
What does this mean for free speech, and will the visa application process be extra stringent?
