Could screening the social media of US visitors help prevent terror attacks?

The Department of Homeland Security has proposed asking foreign visitors to disclose their social media information. 

|
Mario Anzuoni/Reuters/File
Travelers stand in line to go through Transportation Security Administration (TSA) check-points at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, U.S., on May 31, 2016.

Could screening the social media accounts of foreign visitors to the US help thwart terror attacks? 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may soon be doing just that.

In a notice by US Customs and Border Protection published in the Federal Register last week, the agency proposed adding a line to forms filled out by visitors to the US asking them to voluntarily disclose their social media information.  

"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," the notice read. 

The proposal will now undergo a 60-day comment period, ending August 22, for the public to weigh in. 

The Islamic State has notoriously used Twitter to recruit supporters, both in America and around the world. As The Christian Science Monitor's Molly Jackson reported in December: 

...The growth of social media has made terrorism propaganda not only more accessible – "the terrorist is in your pocket," as FBI director James Comey told the Senate this summer – but more personalized for each Twitter user, increasing the chances he or she could be 'groomed' for recruitment. 

At least 46,000 Twitter accounts are maintained by IS supporters, according to a March 2015 report from The Brookings Project on US Relations with the Islamic World, although a mere 500 to 2,000 contribute the bulk of its online activity. 

Considering the documented use of social media by the Islamic State, some lawmakers say the DHS's proposal isn't enough. 

Legislation currently pending in Congress would make disclosure of social media information mandatory for foreign travelers, requiring the DHS to review all public records, including Facebook and other social media, before admitting visitors to the US. 

Rep. Vern Buchanan (R) of Florida, who introduced one such bill in the House, called the DHS proposal for optional screening "lame."

"What terrorist is going to give our government permission to see their radical jihadist rants on social media?" Rep. Buchanan asked in a press release. "The only people who will share that information are those with nothing to hide." 

While the DHS doesn't consistently look at the social media accounts of people applying for visas or immigration, it does have a list of nearly three dozen situations in which it can use social media to screen applicants, according to The New York Times. 

There are also four pilot projects currently underway for the department to study social media use among people applying for immigration benefits. One of the projects, which began in December and runs through this month, screens the social media accounts of those applying for fiancé(e) visas. (One of the attackers in the December shooting in San Bernadino, Calif. entered the US with such a visa.) 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Could screening the social media of US visitors help prevent terror attacks?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2016/0629/Could-screening-the-social-media-of-US-visitors-help-prevent-terror-attacks
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe