We have all heard about the new US immigration requirements regarding social media posts.
In today's Daily Mail (UK newspaper), there is an article that states the following: Overseas travelers, including from the UK, could soon be required to make every post they've made on social media in the last five years open to scrutiny, with any hint of anti-American sentiment likely to land them in hot water with border officials.
How does this work? I only ave a WhatsApp account but don't like filling my phone with rubbish so delete message as soon as possible, even though WA will do so automatically after seven days. There is no way I know, that I can access past messages. So how could the authorities find my past five years of chats?
I know nothing about the other social media apps, but is it all recoverable forever?
I would expect that for the most part one's name would need to be on some kind of watch list for US immigration officials to take a deep dive into their social media history. But these days even a foreign sounding last name could trigger that response.
They will want anyone from certain countries/regions, the UK included, to fill out detailed forms in advance of a trip so they can determine how much of or how deep an investigation is warranted.
They would need to subpoena a site like Facebook to get any hidden or past data but they do store it for quite a long time if it's legally required to produce. The old saying that the internet is forever is not a great exaggeration.
Google
how long does facebook keep a deleted account's details
for an example of what may be a fairly common industry standard in data retention.
Key detail seen below..
Also worth noting is that they can and likely will have a look at any of your listed online friends/contacts for their known politically relevant comments as well.
Here's a pretty good explanation of this new travel requirment from a Canadian viewpoint:
Thank you. Interesting. Given the whole DOGE business, I guess he will have to re-hire a large number of people to administer this process.
Fortunately, there is no way I would be wanting to watch any football match but if I did, think I would be rejected at the border for e-mails and WhatsCrap posts!
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