Social Media?

What is that?

Things like Facebook and Twitter.

(Blank stare)

You post things on it like family newsletters and pictures of your pets. And you chat.

Chat?

Type messages to your friends.

Like a phone call?

Exactly!

What an enormous waste of time.

Why You Should Be Concerned About the DHS Plan to Collect Social Media Info on Travelers
By Sarah Lazare, AlterNet
August 26, 2016

Coming at a time of heightened incitement against Muslims and refugees during the 2016 presidential election cycle, false claims about the social media postings of the San Bernardino attackers intensified pressure on federal authorities to escalate their dragnet surveillance of online activities. Now, at least one government agency, DHS, is moving to aggressively expand its powers to collect and monitor the social media information of people seeking to enter the United States through the visa waiver program. Civil liberties advocates say the plan is a human rights disaster that will come down hardest on Muslims, Arabs and people of color.

DHS announced in late June that it proposes to monitor and collect social media and other online information about millions of people seeking to enter the U.S. through the visa waiver program, which allows some foreign nationals from designated countries (currently numbered at 38) to travel to the country for tourism or business for up to 90 days without obtaining a visa. The agency would accomplish this aim by modifying key documents — ESTA and Form I-94W — to include a line that states, “Please enter information associated with your online presence—Provider/Platform—Social media identifier.”

DHS claims that the addition, which would be under the purview of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, will “be an optional data field to request social media identifiers to be used for vetting purposes, as well as applicant contact information.” The agency asserts, “Collecting social media data will enhance the existing investigative process and provide DHS greater clarity and visibility to possible nefarious activity and connections by providing an additional tool set which analysts and investigators may use to better analyze and investigate the case.”
…
Rachel Levinson-Waldman, senior counsel for the liberty and national security program at the Brennan Center for Justice, told AlterNet that the proposed change is alarming and potentially far-reaching. “The concern that stands out the most is the chilling effect that this could have,” she said. “The request is so vague; it asks for information about social media and online presence, but there is no definition of what that means.”
…
(T)here is reason to believe that, in practice, such a policy would disproportionately expand surveillance of Muslims and Arabs. “The risk of discrimination based on analysis of social media content and connections is great and will fall hardest on Arab and Muslim communities, whose usernames, posts, contacts, and social networks will be exposed to intense scrutiny,” declared the human rights organizations in their joint statement. “Cultural and linguistic barriers increase the risk that social media activity will be misconstrued.”

Such fears are not hypothetical. The visa waiver program already discriminates against people based on national origin by excluding those hailing from countries the U.S. deems at greater risk of “terrorism.”
…
Levinson-Waldman said it is troubling that baseless narratives in the aftermath of the San Bernardino massacre likely contributed to a proposed change that itself is based on false assumptions. “The notion that you can look at somebody’s online presence and know what their ideology is, what their risk level is, that is so questionable,” she said.