Breaking; US Visa applicants to provide social media history

The US government is proposing to collect social media identities from nearly everyone who seeks US Visa, according to a State Department filing on Friday.

The proposal, a broad expansion of the information gathered from applicants for U.S. visas, if approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), would require most immigrant and non-immigrant visa applicants to list all social media identities they have used in the past five years.

The information will be used to vet and identify them, according to the proposals, which would affect about 14.7 million people annually.

The proposals support President Donald Trump’s promise to institute “extreme vetting” of foreigners entering the United states to prevent terrorism.

Previously, under rules instituted last May, consular officials were instructed to collect social media identifiers only when they determined “that such information is required to confirm identity or conduct more rigorous national security vetting,” a State Department official said at the time.