Monrovia – Do you have the intention of travelling to the United States of America? Do you also have social media accounts that you hide behind to make trouble, including abusing?
If some Liberians ever thought that they can hide behind most of those fake names on Facebook and other social media platforms to continue to cause troubles, they should think again and do so very hard.
Go ahead and continue to preach hate messages, issue threats and other vices that threaten national security and global peace thinking that you will be able to jump on a plane and fly to the US or that you won’t be caught because you are not using your main or real account on those social media platforms. There will be no more escape.
Beginning June 1, 2019, the US Government has now begun to institute one of its newest and stringent measures on people desirous of traveling to the US.
Among measures, the BBC reports that that superpower nation is demanding that nearly all applicants for visas will have to submit their social media details under newly adopted rules.
A security expert, who asked not to be named, disclosed to FrontPageAfrica some of the “common things” people do on social media for which they might be denied entry into US.
“For example, you submit your travelling documents, including your passport and your name on it is ‘John Brown’ or ‘Annie Paul’ but on your Facebook account, you have something totally different like ‘ThisIsMarySonJohnGodlove’ or ‘GodlovesAnnieSoMuch Paul.’” This security expert, who is not associated with US State Department, urged Liberian social media users to begin to be responsible users of the various platforms on the Internet.
The US State Department’s regulations say people will have to submit social media names and five years’ worth of email addresses and phone numbers.
When this particular measure was proposed last year, authorities estimated the proposal would affect at least 14.7 million people annually.
However, not everyone would be subjected to this new measure. Though the US Government didn’t give the list(s) of the categories exempted, certain diplomatic and official visa applicants will be exempt from the stringent new measures.
But everyone travelling to the US to work or to study will have to hand over their information.
The BBC quotes the US State Department as saying: “We are constantly working to find mechanisms to improve our screening processes to protect US citizens, while supporting legitimate travel to the United States.”
Before June 1, only applicants who needed additional scrutinizing – such as people who had been to parts of the world controlled by terrorist groups – were asked to submit the pieces of information that they are now asking from nearly everyone who may want to travel to the US.
But now applicants will have to give up their account names on a list of social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, and also volunteer the details of their accounts on any sites not listed.
There are reports that anyone who lies about their social media use could face “serious immigration consequences.”
US President Donald Trump’s administration first proposed the rules in March 2018.
Back then, the American Civil Liberties Union – a civil rights group – had said there is “no evidence that such social media monitoring is effective or fair”. This group added that this action would cause people to restrict themselves online.
President Trump made cracking down on immigration a key plan of his election campaign in 2016.
He called for “extreme vetting” of immigrants before and during his time in office.