For a few days several Italian sites and newspapers have been titular that the United States will “check social media for the last five years also to tourists of any nationality” before granting entry into the country. In fact, there is no definitive norm approved with this effect: It is a proposal to amend the entry procedures which are still under review and has not entered into force.
In the U.S. citizens of 42 countries — including Italy — can enter for tourism or business up to 90 days without visa, instead using the electronic authorization system called ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization). This system currently requires basic data and does not force to provide social profiles or online activity chronologies for most travellers.
What has been published on the Federal Register — the “official ticket” of US federal administrations — is a proposal from the Department for Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to change the content of the information required in the ESTA procedure. This is not the only proposal, and perhaps even the most “spigolosa” one. Among the things, in fact, was proposed Among the suggested changes is the addition of:
lista degli account social utilizzati negli ultimi cinque anni;
numeri di telefono usati negli ultimi cinque anni;
indirizzi email degli ultimi dieci anni;
dati biometrici (come impronte digitali e iride);
nomi e dettagli dei familiari più stretti.
It is important to emphasize that this remains a proposal, not a rule. The text published indicates that the American administration intends to open a public commentary period of about 60 days before any final implementation. Only after this passage and after any revisions can mature a binding norm.
Quello che non è successo con questa proposta
This is a standard procedure for American administrations before adopting new rules that impat the public. It is not an “immediate decree” nor a “law already operational”. On the contrary, it serves to collect observations from citizens, companies and interest groups before proceeding.
The confusion also arises from the fact that since 2019 there are already social media disclosure requirements for certain categories of non-tourist visas (such as H-1B work visas, students or other non-immigrant visas), and in some cases American consulates have requested to make public accounts for verification. In the ESTA module, for years (about 2016-2017, then formalized better in the following years) there is an optional section in which the traveller is asked if he wants to indicate his social accounts. Optional means a very precise thing: you can leave it empty without this automatically implying an ETA rejection. It is not a mandatory requirement, it is not a condition for approval and not in itself a systematic control of profiles. It is a potential data collection, not an obligation or automatic action. These rules are not new and do not involve automatic control for all tourist visitors.
Separated from the ETA there is the theme of the discretionary powers of the border authorities (CBP). Even today, like ten or twenty years ago, an officer may decide to do additional checks on a specific person (secondary inspection), which may include questions about online presence, work, previous travels or — in particular cases — even a look at devices. But this does not depend on the ETA itself, it is not a standard procedure and does not concern “all”, but individual motivated cases.
The main international press agencies that reported the news — from Reuters to El País — underline that it is a plan of the Trump administration currently in consultation, not an already active measure.
Tourist operators and associations like the US Travel Association also noted that the idea, if made mandatory, could have negative effects on the flow of visitors, especially in view of international events such as the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, expected by hundreds of thousands of fans.
But then why did many Italian newspapers launch the alarm immediately? The reason is very simple: the alarmist title works better than the context, in Italy even more. To say that “the USA will control social to all tourists” produces immediate fear, involves those who travel, those who have children abroad, who “have something to hide”, and pushes to the click. Explaining that this is an administrative proposal, subject to public consultation and long time, requires space, precision and above all does not generate traffic on sites
The clickbait, or inducing the click through an attractive but fundamentally false title, has become the norm for a structural combination of factors: the collapse of paper sales, but also the online advertising that pays very little and the reduced editorials on which a lot of pressure is made to increase access to the sites and news published
In the specific case of the United States, then another element comes into play: America is a country perceived as far, opaque, bureaucratically incomprehensible and politically polarizing. This makes it easier to tell any proposal as a decision already made, and any iter as an act of force. The result is a systematic distortion: a technical change and often superfluous becomes “a narrow”, the drafts and proposals become “new rules”, the distant assumptions become “from today”. And America is getting farther away
In summary: nothing has been approved that imposes social controls on foreign tourists before leaving for the USA. The measure is proposed, part of a wider review of visitor control procedures, and must still be submitted to public comment and formal approval before becoming mandatory — if ever it will be.
L’articolo No, no one will check on social travel in the USA proviene da IlNewyorkese.
