In case one actually doesn’t have a social media account, they can let the concerned authorities know but a verification check would still be performed to ensure that they aren’t lying.
This idea of retrieving all of the email addresses, social media accounts used by the applicant in the last five years along with their contact numbers, was suggested by the state department last year. However, it wasn’t until last week when the policy was finally implemented.
According to a US Department of State official, the new approach would help in filtering out terrorists, other questionable individuals and threats from getting a US visa. He also added that Social Media has proven to be a key medium used by terrorists to carry out their operations so an applicant’s Social Media activities need to be monitored.
Thus, moving forward, the US administration will use the shared social media details to perform a background check on the applicants. Nearly 15 million people will be impacted each year due to this new approach.
In addition to that, the US government is even considering introducing a policy that would require applicants to share their general travel history.
It remains to be seen whether the new policy helps in screening out the threats. However, people are concerned about their privacy getting exploited due to this approach. Moreover, the process can still get stricter in the future.
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