Will the land of the free take a dim view of my social media posts?
Earlier this year one of our journalists booked a holiday to India, and I had to provide him with a letter confirming that he was travelling in a personal capacity and wouldn’t be doing anything as nefarious as journalism while in the country. Days later another of our reporters decided to follow suit, and I had to write the same letter again, assuring officials at India’s embassy in London that they were simply visiting as a tourist.
It occurred to me that the Indians might have thought I was attempting to infiltrate an undercover squad of journalists into their country, but they didn’t seem to connect the two applications.
As journalists, we’re used to people being suspicious of us and there are other countries where travel would likely be problematic. Do we now have to add America to this list? The US Customs and Border Protection agency is consulting on proposals to require that visitors to the land of the free provide records of their social media activity going back five years.
If adopted, the move would apply to countries that currently enjoy visa-waiver status, such as the UK. The plan will also demand travellers provide their telephone numbers going back five years, details of family members and work email addresses stretching back a decade.
It’s one thing to move to a system of more stringent vetting for security purposes, but there is a real fear that being critical of Donald Trump and/or US policy will be enough to have you stopped at the border. This got me thinking about those of us who make a living through commentary, opinionated writing, provocation, satire or just reporting the news.
I’ve looked back at my posts on X (formerly Twitter) to see if I’d come a cropper, and the jury’s out.
In 2019, I criticised Trump’s advice to “send in flying water tankers” to tackle the Notre Dame blaze. But a few years before, in 2016, I approvingly quoted his observation that “The problem in Venezuela is not that socialism has been poorly implemented, but that it’s been faithfully implemented.” I’ve written plenty of pieces criticising his tariff policies but what could seal my fate is a 2019 article in which I compared Trump to Jeremy Corbyn.
Come to think of it, this column could be held against me in the future.
Simply put, I don’t fancy my chances, which is a shame – because I love America. Fingers crossed that counts for something.