US embassy wants 'every social media username of past five years' on new visa applications
www.thejournal.ie
The move has been heavily criticised by Taoiseach Micheál Martin who described it as “excessive”.
  • okwhateverdude@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Of course, how would they know if you don’t list any? Oh, that’s right, PRISM. Fully expect that people who don’t have social media accounts to get accused of having them simply because someone else shares the same name and did say First Amendment protected stuff, like Donald Trump is a terrible fucking president and should be impeached.

    Sorry person with the last name Erdude. I guess you aren’t getting into the US now.

  • Arthur Besse@lemmy.mlEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    in other news, the market price of hacked credentials for MAGA-friendly social media accounts:

    📈

    note

    in case it is unclear to anyone: the above is a joke.

    in all seriousness, renaming someone else’s account and presenting it to CBP as one’s own would be dangerous and inadvisable. a more prudent course of action at this time is to avoid traveling to the united states.

  • serenissi@lemmy.world
    0·
    10 months ago

    My US visa officer: what do you mean you did not have ‘social’ media accounts in 5 years? No, these weird sites don’t count. Underground terrorist? Straight to gulag.

  • taco@piefed.socialEnglish
    0·
    10 months ago

    The username requirement isn’t anything new; that requirement was on our DS-160 years ago.

    The “wants people to set their social media profiles to public” isn’t quoted, so seems less like an official policy anywhere and more like one embassy worker being a prick. Unfortunately, each individual embassy operates independently totally devoid of any accountability.

    This process is dehumanizing, inefficient, and totally fucked…but this particular part of it has been this was for a long-ass time.

      • taco@piefed.socialEnglish
        0·
        10 months ago

        Fair enough, though that’s an ask from the State Dept., not a demand from the embassy, as indicated in the OP. It’s an important distinction because the embassy holds the authority at that point in the process. They can ignore the guidance altogether or demand everyone open their profiles. They’re probably more likely to do the latter now, but they could’ve done this two years ago too.

        Demanding the usernames for the past 5 years and being suspect of anyone not on social media isn’t a new, that was my main point. I don’t think many people appreciated how shitfucked our visa processes are, even before the current “administration” helping.