If you want to book a trip to visit (or come back to) the United States, Homeland Security might soon be asking you for your Twitter handle along with your passport. According to the Wall Street Journal, the federal department wants to parse social media posts to determine if visa candidates might pose a threat to national security.
The visa review proposal comes mere weeks after a Dec. 2 shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernadino, Calif., which resulted in 14 casualties, with 22 wounded on the scene. The Los Angeles Times has called the massacre "the worst terrorist attack on American soil since Sept. 11, 2001." One of the assailants, Tashfeen Malik, came to the U.S. from Pakistan on a visa, despite undergoing three separate background checks to do so.
Currently, it is illegal for Homeland Security agents to scrutinize an applicant's social media pages or accounts. A similar proposal to revert this ruling was dismissed in 2014 by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.
At the time of her visa review, Malik's social media accounts were not checked for suspicious activity, despite the fact that she frequently posted pro-jihadist sentiments.
In a statement following the attack, President Barack Obama exhorted "high-tech and law enforcement leaders to make it harder for terrorists to use technology to escape from justice."
Via: The Verge
Photo: Kat | Flickr
