<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/dec/11/australia-us-tourism-new-visa-rules-social-media-history>
"Australians are abandoning travel to the US, and boycotting World Cup matches
there next year, as the Trump administration flags new rules that will soon
require visitors to hand over their social media history when applying to enter
the country.
In a notice published on Tuesday, the US Customs and Border Protection agency
(CBP) said tourists to the US from 42 countries including Australia would have
to reveal all of their social media activity over the past five years under the
new rules, which are up for a 60-day review before coming into effect. It would
be a part of the application for a visa waiver under the ESTA application
process.
The rules were drawn up in response to an executive order made by Donald Trump
on the day of his inauguration in January which purported to “protect” the US
from visitors, instructing that visas should be denied to anyone with “hostile
attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding
principles”.
Australian tourists have described the US mandate to sweep social media posts,
as well as collect comprehensive “high-value data” on family members such as
phone numbers, dates of birth and residencies, as “horrifying” and “draconian”.
But travel data reveals Australians were already avoiding the US before the
detailed rules were announced. They have changed travel plans to avoid entering
the US and even moved reunions with family members to other countries.
In 2019, the last free year of travel before the Covid-19 pandemic shuttered
borders across the world, more than 100,000 Australians would regularly arrive
in the US each month. That figure is now consistently in the low 50,000s, and
below 50,000 for the first time last month, figures from the US department of
commerce show."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
