According to Homeland Security Secretary, John Kelly, US embassies could ask visa applicants for access their social networks in order to tighten controls.
This measure aims at reinforcing previous visitor checks and eliminating those that could pose a threat to national security. This is what Donald Trump called “extreme verification.”
The measure particularly affects citizens of seven Muslim majority countries (Iran, Syria, Libya, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen), whose control procedures are still very weak.
The citizens from these countries and all refugees were temporarily banned from visiting the US on January 27th, by a presidential decree that was later appealed.
We want to be able to check their social networks with passwords,”
stated Kelly before the Homeland Security Committee.
It is very difficult to carry out real controls in these countries, in those seven countries… but if they come, we want to be able to see the websites they visit and we want them to give us their passwords so that we know what they do on the Internet,”
added the official.
John Kelly indicated that no decision had been taken on this yet, but that in the future there would be a need for stronger controls, even if this meant longer time frames to get visas.
If they do not want to cooperate, then they do not enter,”
concluded Kelly.