DHS to Track Social Media Accounts of Immigrants

Recently, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has posted a new rule in the Federal Register, and this rule will be going into effect later next month, specifically on October 18th. The changes mainly revolve around identifying specific government electronic documents as also part of immigrants’ official records as the agency tries to undertake additional immigrant actions in a digital environment. There is nothing notable about this, except for the part where the DHS has created new categories with regards to official records, which now include social media usernames and handles, aliases, associated identifiable information, and web search results. Furthermore, the gathering of social media data will not apply to new immigrants only, but also to all immigrants, even those that have attained permanent residency and naturalization. 

Having social media data become part of an immigrant’s official records has been a hot topic for some years now. As a matter of fact, around a couple of years ago, the DHS actually started formulating a proposal to include social media searches in the visa application process. Then last year, the same agency proposed and then implemented a new section in the travel form for people visiting the United States from other countries. The new section was under the visa waiver program that requests foreigners to provide the names used in their social media accounts.

Back in February early this year, the DHS then revealed its plans to begin asking travelers from President Donald Trump’s ban list of countries to provide not only their social media handles, but also their password information, too. A month later, there were reports that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had called for social media checks to be conducted on all those who applied for visas and have traveled to regions controlled by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Then about four months ago, an expanded questionnaire for visa applicants was proposed (and then implemented a month later), one that requests people to provide all social media usernames that were used in the last half decade.

Naturally, this latest new rule introduced by the DHS is already eliciting reactions. As reported by BuzzFeed, Attorney Adam Schwartz (who represents the Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney) that this increasing interest by the DHS to monitor the social media account data of immigrants is an invasion of privacy and a violation of the right to free speech. As mentioned earlier, the new rule will go into effect on October 18th, and until then, it is open for public feedback.