Trump administration proposes increased monitoring of foreigners with their social media history

The Trump Administration is evaluating further increasing oversight of foreigners entering the United States, even if they come from Western countries, or that until now did not have higher entry requirements. Specifically, they are evaluating an initiative that includes getting information from the social media of those interested in arriving in the country.

The measure, pushed by Customs and Border Protection and would require tourists entering the United States through the Visa Waiver Program to provide the federal government with the last five years of their social media activity.

Currently, the Visa Waiver Program allows foreign nationals to enter the country for tourism or business without a visa for up to 90 days. Some of the countries included are Spain, Germany, Australia, Israel and Qatar, among others. According to current requirements, their citizens need only pay forty dollars, provide an email address, home address, telephone number and emergency contact information.

This requirement would not stand on its own, but would be based on an executive order signed by President Donald Trump, dubbed as "Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats."

In turn, the proposal would require foreign nationals to provide information from what it calls "high-value data fields," such as phone numbers and email addresses they have used in the past five years. To this would have to be added names of close family members and phone numbers they have used in the past five years.

The proposal also comes less than a year before the start of the FIFA World Cup 2026, to be played in the United States, Mexico and Canada. As one of the biggest tourist events in the sporting world, millions of international tourists are expected to arrive in the three host countries.