ESTA: USA wants to check social media accounts of European travelers as well
For a vacation in the USA, people from Europe have so far not had to reveal too much. This could soon change if it's up to US border control.
(Image: Bignai/Shutterstock.com)
US border authorities want to check social media posts of travelers without a visa – i.e., from countries like Germany, Austria, and Switzerland – retroactively for five years. This is according to a proposal by the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that has now been made public. It explicitly concerns travelers from countries for which the USA waives visa requirements for 90-day stays. This includes most European countries, as well as Japan, Australia, and Israel. Until now, they were exempt from the requirement to provide their social media accounts, although it was possible to do so voluntarily. Furthermore, the necessary ESTA application will in future only be possible via the associated app, not via the website.
Implementation possible as early as spring
According to the document, the CPB also plans to request numerous additional personal data in the ESTA application. This includes all – including professional – phone numbers and email addresses used in the past five or ten years, names and phone numbers of close family members, as well as their birth dates and places. Biometric data is also included. Those wishing to enter the USA for a vacation of no more than 90 days currently only have to provide information about themselves, as well as data for an emergency contact. The tightening of rules is currently only a proposal that the US public can comment on. Implementation could take weeks or months at the beginning of 2026.
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Speaking to The New York Times, an anonymous person from the travel industry stated that there was no prior information about the planned tightening of rules. An immigration lawyer tells the newspaper that this is a paradigm shift, as social networks have so far only been used to verify certain facts. In the future, opinions expressed online are to be sought, and the consequences for entry numbers would be "interesting." Waiting times are also likely to increase. The civil liberties organization EFF is already warning of the potential consequences, pointing out that such investigations would primarily restrict free speech and the privacy of innocent individuals.
(mho)
