On February 9, 2025, the Brennan Center, Knight First Amendment Institute, and EPIC submitted comments to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), an agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The comments urge DHS to abandon its proposal to collect social media identifiers, biometric information, and other sensitive information from the roughly 14.5 million travelers per year who apply through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) to travel to the United States under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP). The VWP is a security partnership with countries deemed America’s “closest allies,” under which visitors from participating countries may enter the United States without a visa for up to 90 days.
DHS will force people from VWP countries to submit to sweeping surveillance, simply because those travelers want to visit family in the United States, conduct business with U.S.-based companies, or attend global events such as the upcoming World Cup.
This is not the first time DHS has attempted to impose such a requirement. In February 2022, CBP proposed making social media identifier disclosure mandatory on ESTA applications, but abandoned the effort in May 2023 following review by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Earlier, in April 2021, OMB rejected a similar proposal from DHS to collect social media handles across travel and immigration forms, underscoring that DHS had failed to demonstrate the "practical utility” of collecting social media identifiers on these forms.
Our comment emphasizes the absence of any evidence that social media screening is useful for vetting people. We also highlight that this proposal fails to account for any social and monetary costs and reiterate our objections to the government’s collection and screening of social media information, including the risks to privacy and anonymity and the chilling of free expression.
For example, the proposal will inevitably lead to self-censorship among travelers who fear that their online views could be misinterpreted by government officials — silencing speech and restricting the ability of Americans to receive that information. The mandatory disclosure may also deter international travel to the U.S. and cost the country billions in lost spending, particularly as the World Cup approaches, which will be hosted in a variety of U.S. cities and is estimated to bring 185,000 jobs and $30.5 billion in economic impact to the United States.
This proposal follows a series of policy announcements and related actions that signal the administration’s increasingly broad and indiscriminate scrutiny of First Amendment-protected activity. The requirement appears poised to operate in tandem with those efforts. We urge the administration not to adopt this measure to prevent any further harm.
