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Comment by danieltillett | Hacker News Reader

As someone who has to travel to the USA for business I welcome all this activity - it is so much more enjoyable to have the seat next to you empty when you fly. I do wonder how long the airlines can continue to fly on half load.

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Does this affect the process for all visas? Including tourism?

Yes. It's part of ESTA. I did not fill my social media accounts in - because I don't have any - when made an application, and to my surprise it was approved. Still a question of whether I get to enter the US next week, though.

It's part of ESTA.

Travelers from many countries require a visa to visit the United States for any purpose.

Travelers from 38 countries can visit the United States for a variety of purposes (including tourism and business) without a visa, under the Visa Waiver Program.

ESTA -- Electronic System for Travel Authorization -- is part of the Visa Waiver Program, and is an online form to help determine eligibility for visa-free travel. Using ESTA to determine eligibility in advance is required for arrival by air or sea.

The linked article is concerned with visa applications. Travelers using ESTA/Visa Waiver Program are not applying for visas. So what is described in the linked article is not something that applies to ESTA, and ESTA questionnaires are not what are being described here. While ESTA may use similar questions, this is not the same as a visa application.

Also, if you click through to the actual linked article or its Reuters source, you'll find that the HN headline is incredibly misleading. The headline implies that all visa applicants will be required to provide this information, but the articles say the information is voluntary and describe it by saying "consular officials can" request the information at their discretion.

It's currently optional. I've no idea why anyone would voluntarily hand over that information

When you're presenting yourself to garner the favor of an agent, there is no such thing as optional.

You do have a HN account though.

What's listed within ESTA at the moment?

HN is not one of the sites listed. Although, you could select 'other', but I did not consider HN social media. Maybe my definition of 'social media' is a lot narrower than the US government's. I mean, does being a member of a classic bulletin board count?

Which social media are listed outside of FB, Twitter, and IG? Can't seem to find this. The article mentions it includes email. Is this included?

I renewed my ESTA back in February, then they had a section with social media accounts but it explicitly said that filling that section out was voluntary.

when I did esta 2 weeks ago social media hadnt been mentioned

No its there. Filled it in 3-4 weeks ago and there was already a field for it back then. Was marked as optional though

What makes you think most people wouldn't voluntarily give over the social media accounts? It's really only people on HN that cares about that kind of privacy.

If anything, you'll get stuck with the annoying people who are proud of their social media accounts.

Travel to the US is down.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-01/donald-trump-slump-cou...

And it's going to plunge envenimé more, foreign student enrollment is down 40%, and a lot of students are staying in the US until they finish their studies and definitely leave.

That's true, but that happened before these new requirements were instituted. Indeed, I wonder if rhetoric from administration and the campaign before election had more to do with it than these requirements.

Not that I approve of them, mind you.

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