<
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/10/tourists-social-media-trump>
"Tourists to the United States would have to reveal their social media activity
from the last five years, under new Trump administration plans.
The mandatory new disclosures would apply to the 42 countries whose nationals
are currently permitted to enter the US without a visa, including longtime US
allies Britain, France, Australia, Germany and Japan.
In a notice published on Tuesday, the US Customs and Border Protection agency
(CBP) said it would also require any telephone numbers used by visitors over
the same period, and any email addresses used in the last decade, as well as
face, fingerprint, DNA and iris biometrics. It would also ask for the names,
addresses, birthdates and birthplaces of family members, including children.
CBP said the new changes to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization
(Esta) application were required in order to comply with an executive order
issued by Donald Trump on the first day of his new term. In it, the US
president called for restrictions to ensure visitors to the US “do not bear
hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or
founding principles”.
The plan would throw a wrench into travel for the World Cup, which the US is
co-hosting with Canada and Mexico next year. Fifa has said it expects to
attract 5 million fans to the stadiums, and millions more visitors to the US,
Canada and Mexico.
Tourism to the US has already dropped dramatically in Trump’s second term, as
the president has pushed a draconian crackdown on immigrants, including recent
moves to ban all asylum claims and to stop migration entirely from more than 30
countries.
California tourism authorities are predicting a 9% decline in foreign visits to
the state this year, while Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles reported a 50%
fall in foot traffic over the summer. Las Vegas, too, has been badly hit by a
decline in visits, worsened by the rise of mobile gambling apps.
Statistics Canada said Canadian residents who made a return trip to the US by
car dropped 36.9% in July 2025 compared with the same month in 2024, while
commercial airline travel from Canada dropped by 25.8% in July compared with
the previous year, as relations between the two countries plummeted.
The US has already started squeezing foreign tourism in other ways, slapping an
additional $100 fee per foreign visitor per day to visit national parks, such
as the Grand Canyon and Yosemite, on top of the regular admission fees. Nor
will national parks have free admission on Martin Luther King Jr Day any longer
– but they will now be free for US residents to visit on Trump’s birthday."
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
