[Photo by Sae-jin Park]
With recent shootings resulted in civilian casualties in the U.S., the nation’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is planning to check visa applicants’ social media posts before allowing the people into the country.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that a person familiar with the matter said, that the DHS’s plan focuses on the persons’ use of the social media sites. Currently, the reviews of social media posts are only being carried out randomly which began earlier this year.
When the screening goes active, getting a visa to enter U.S. soils would get harder as the process is a pain in the back already. Applicants’ social media posting can be a good reason for U.S. government to not let the person enter the country without specific reasons.
It is not known whether the DHS will take its plan further and actually have it applied in the visa issuing process, but the experts are showing worries already. Kim Sung-chul, CEO of MSAT Security Company, said, “It is hard to calculate whether a person’s privacy is important than a group’s safety, but it is sure that once the DHS starts looking into visa applicants’ social media posts more carefully, violation of privacy will happen.”
However, there is no official explanation from the DHS, and its active date is not known. Some experts believe that the plan, with chances of violating people’s privacy, the plan will be scrapped before it goes active.
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