Aussie travellers who criticise US most at risk as Trump administration proposes social media disclosures

Australians travelling to the United States could soon face longer delays and an unprecedented invasion of privacy, an international law expert has warned.

It comes as the US plans to require tourists to hand over five years of their social media history to border officials.

Professor Donald Rothwell from the Australian National University said people who criticised the US government were most at risk.

"The people most affected are those who are very active on social media, especially politically active individuals or those who've expressed criticism of US domestic or international policies," Professor Rothwell said.

The measure, filed by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), would target travellers from Australia and 41 other visa-exempt countries, including New Zealand, the UK, France, and Japan.

While providing social media history has been mandatory for standard tourist visas since 2019, travellers from visa-exempt countries have so far been able to bypass it through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), where disclosure of social media accounts is optional.

Traveller Judy Skeat heard about the new proposal at Brisbane Airport this morning.

She said the requirement to reveal social media histories, as well as reports of people being unfairly detained, had led to her decision to avoid travelling to the US.

"I wouldn't go to the States," she said.

"I think it's intrusive, and it's dangerous, and I wouldn't go.

"I've probably got some dodgy posts about Donald Trump of my own, and I don't want to get a burner phone to avoid that. I want to be able to say what I think.

"I'm absolutely sure that fewer Australians are going to go, but I'm hoping that will all change at the next election."

Professor Rothwell said the proposal was "very likely to be adopted".

"The immediate concern is the impact upon the privacy of the applicant … applicants are effectively waiving their rights to privacy when they apply for an ESTA, and as non-US citizens, they don't have freedoms of speech under US law," he said.

He said Australians "should be cautious" about what they posted regarding the US.

"Removing yourself from social media now doesn't erase what was posted five years ago," he said.

What are the proposed changes?

Under current rules, travellers from visa-waiver countries need to provide basic contact details, including their home address, phone number, email, and emergency contact, along with a $40 application fee.

Under the proposed changes, applicants could be asked to supply all phone numbers they have used in the past five years, all email addresses from the past 10 years, and detailed information about immediate family members, including their names, dates and places of birth, and current addresses.

A question about entering social media information was added to the application in 2016, with the section marked as "optional."

The new proposal would require applicants to disclose five years of their social media history.

"If an applicant does not answer the question or simply does not hold a social media account, the ESTA application can still be submitted without a negative interpretation or inference," the CBP website now states.

Policy needed to 'keep American people safe': US Customs

In a statement, a US Customs and Border Patrol spokeswoman said the proposal is not a final rule and no changes have been made for travellers to the United States.

"It is simply the first step in starting a discussion to have new policy options to keep the American people safe," the spokeswoman said.

"The department is constantly looking at how we vet those coming into the country, especially after the terrorist attack in Washington DC against our National Guard right before Thanksgiving."

In response to the reports, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the United States is a sovereign nation and had "a right to set the rules which are there".

He pointed to the government's SmartTraveler website, which includes advice about the expectations of different countries for travellers, but would not be drawn on whether Australia was concerned by the proposed changes.

"This is a decision that the United States is making; we recognise that," he said.

The public has 60 days to comment on the proposal.

The Trump administration has, over the past year, tightened curbs on entering the United States, part of a sweeping crackdown on both legal and illegal immigration.

In June, student visa applicants were directed to make their social media profiles public, to be more readily scrutinised by US officials assessing their application.

The same rule will come into effect next Monday for H-1B skilled worker visa applicants.

In June, the US government denied arresting Australian writer Alistair Kitchen because of his political beliefs, saying he was turned away from the border for giving false information on an entry form. 

Mr Kitchen said he was refused entry to the US after being grilled about his views on the Gaza conflict and articles he wrote about pro-Palestinian protests.

In a separate incident earlier this year, Melbourne woman Pauline Ryan said she was patted down, fingerprinted and taken to a holding area, after border officials told her her ESTA was invalid, due to a previous trip to Iran in 2013 that she had declared. 

In October this year, the Trump administration imposed an additional $250 visa fee, which applies to travellers from countries including Brazil, China, India and Mexico, none of which are part of the visa waiver program.