Feb 13 - Two Democratic senators have called on the administration to withdraw a proposed policy that would compel millions of foreign visitors to disclose social media identifiers used during the prior five years.
The policy, put forward by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), is aimed at travelers arriving under the visa waiver program and would add a requirement to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) form used by those visitors. Under the change, applicants from the 42 visa-waiver countries - mostly in Europe - who travel to the United States for stays up to 90 days would have to provide the social media handles they have used over the previous five years.
Senators Ed Markey and Ron Wyden said the requirement would amount to broad digital monitoring and would sweep up people traveling for routine reasons. "By requiring travelers to disclose their personal social media information, CBP will force people who simply want to visit family in the United States, conduct business with U.S. companies, or attend events such as the upcoming World Cup to submit to sweeping digital surveillance," the senators said. They added: "No doubt many Americans would be outraged if countries such as Great Britain, France, or Australia imposed a similar policy on American tourists."
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately comment on the senators' request or the CBP proposal. In December, the department indicated the proposal could take effect as early as this month.
Representatives of the U.S. travel and tourism industry have also cautioned about potential fallout. The U.S. Travel Association warned the measure could have a "chilling effect" on travel to the United States. "If we get this policy wrong, millions of travelers could take their business and the billions of dollars they spend elsewhere, only making America weaker," the association said.
Policy moves to increase vetting of foreign visitors are not entirely new. Since 2019, applicants seeking immigrant and non-immigrant visas have been required to provide social media information. More recently, Washington has tightened screening in response to an executive order issued in January 2025 that directed visitors to the U.S. to be "vetted and screened to the maximum degree."
Beyond social media handles, U.S. authorities are considering additional data elements for travelers. The proposals under consideration include collecting all email addresses used over the past 10 years and detailed biographical data on immediate family members - names, birth dates, residences and birthplaces of parents, siblings, children and spouses.
Separately, the U.S. State Department in December announced a requirement for H-1B applicants and their dependents to set the privacy settings on all social media profiles to "public" to allow review of applicants' social media posts.
Context and implications
The proposal centers on pre-travel vetting for visa-waiver entrants and intersects with broader changes to U.S. immigration and screening policy. The debates over the measure highlight tensions between national security-driven data collection and concerns about privacy and economic impacts on travel and tourism.