White House considering demanding social media passwords for certain travellers

DONALD Trump is determined to implement “extreme vetting” for people coming into the United States. We now know what that could look like.

When travelling to the US in the future, you might be asked for your Facebook password by immigration officials.

DONALD Trump loves his Twitter account and now he wants access to yours.

The United States government is considering a proposal to force certain people entering the country to hand over their social media passwords.

US Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly told congress this week that the department was considering applying the rule to travellers with passports from the seven Muslim majority nations that were named in the Trump administration’s recent travel ban.

“We want to get on their social media, with passwords: What do you do, what do you say?” the DHS boss told the congressional House Committee on Homeland Security on Wednesday (AEST).

“If they don’t want to co-operate, then you don’t come in,” he said.

The Obama administration had previously considered the idea of demanding social media passwords from visitors entering the country but passed on it.

It did however adopt a change to the visa waiver application that allows travellers from 38 developed countries, including Australia, to enter the country without a visa.

The change introduced a request for travellers to provide voluntary information about their “online presence” and asks for account information for Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and others.

The list includes Russia’s Facebook version VKontakte.

When enacting the change to the application process the Obama administration said it would provide agencies with “greater clarity and visibility to possible nefarious activity and connections.”

Now, it seems Trump’s government wants to take it one step further and get full access. At least for some nationals.

“We may want to get on their social media, with passwords. It’s very hard to truly vet these people in these countries, the seven countries,” Mr Kelly told the Security Committee.

“But if they come in, we want to say, what websites do they visit, and give us your passwords. So we can see what they do on the internet. If they truly want to come to America, then they will co-operate. If not, next in line.”

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly while testifying before the House Homeland Security Committee. Picture: Andrew Harnik

The government has said the rule will apply to the predominantly Muslim countries named in the controversial executive order temporarily banning their entry to the US. But given the precedent set by the Obama administration and previous comments by Mr Trump, some have speculated that if the rule does come into effect, it could soon be applied more broadly.

Fuelling suspicion of legal creep among privacy advocates is the fact that Mr Trump ordered the DHS to create a “uniform screening standard and procedure” that would apply to anyone seeking to immigrate to the United States. However it is unclear if any such procedure would affect tourist visitors.

Social media passwords were among a number of things the DHS is considering to bolster the White House’s much touted “extreme vetting”.

Another proposal under consideration was demanding financial records.

“We can follow the money, so to speak. How are you living, who’s sending the money?” Mr Kelly said.

This morning NPR journalist Rachel Martin tweeted that the DHS boss had expressed a desire to seize people’s mobile phones as well as passwords.

In this day and age it can be tough to remember all the passwords to your various social media accounts, let alone cough them up to immigration officials.

But the US is edging us ever closer to such a reality.

When travelling to the US in the future, you might be asked for your Facebook password by immigration officials.