Trump Is Checking Tourists’ Phones - You’re Next

This is definitely how democracies work.

Tourists visiting the US from Britain, Australia, France, and more, will now be forced to show their social media histories from the past five years for inspection to enter the country — another sign of Trump’s increasing censorship.

This isn’t the first time the Trump admin is using social media to deny tourists entry — earlier this year, a Norwegian tourist was strip searched and interrogated by border patrol agents for having a JD Vance meme on his phone and a French scientist was stopped at the border for having anti-Trump messages on his phone.

Now, the Trump admin will gain access to years of social media data for any tourist from countries in the Visa Waiver Program that applies for the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). In addition to their social data, applicants will now also have to submit a photo of their face and information about family members.

Obviously, this is another example of Trump’s censorship and governmental overreach — tourists’ opinions on the administration has never been relevant to their vacations in a democracy, but I can’t imagine what else these social media searches would be looking for. Trump hasn’t been shy about domestic censorship either — just ask all the media companies kicked out of the White House Press Pool for not being friendly to the admin.

This requirement isn’t confirmed yet — the proposal has a 60-day notice for comments and feedback, and I have some to give. This idea is undemocratic, discriminatory, and outright insane — we should want the United States to be a place where people want to visit. We have some of the best cities and most beautiful nature in the world — though Trump has tripled the price to visit these parks for non-residents and took MLK Day and Juneteenth off the fee-free holiday list (while adding his own birthday as one of the observed holidays, as a dictator would do).

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