A plan by the U.S. government to require some foreign travelers to provide their social media IDs on key travel documents is drawing outrage.
People who responded to the government’s request for comment about the proposal spared little in their criticisms. They call it “ludicrous,” an “all-around bad idea,” “blatant overreach,” “desperate, paranoid heavy-handedness,” “preposterous,” “appalling,” and “un-American.”
But the feds are most serious about it.
***
The government “sees the visa waiver program as easier to abuse, from a security standpoint, than regular visa processes because there is no Department of State consular review of the application," said Ian Macdonald, an immigration attorney at Greenberg Traurig in Atlanta.