Digital screening of visitors to US?

Some American lawmakers are now demanding that visitors to the US be subjected to "mandatory digital screening," including a scrutiny of their social media accounts And Tuesday's terrorist at tack on Istanbul's Ataturk airport has revived calls for even greater security measures at airports, including check-in and baggage scrutiny miles way from the terminals, and enhanced security at arrival halls, a weak-spot that terro rists exploited at Istanbul.

Although terrorism kills only a fraction of the people who die due to drunk driving domestic gun violence, and other infractions, recent high profile attacks have resulted in raising the bar in what has become a security industry. US lawmakers are now asking federal authorities, who are already proposing that visitors voluntarily declare their social media accounts in visa forms, to make the disclosure mandatory. "What terrorist is going to give our government permission to see their radical jihadist rants on social media? The only people who will share that information are those with nothing to hide," said Vern Buchanan, a Florida Republican whose Social Media Screening For Terrorists Act directs the secretary of Homeland Security to vet all public records, including Facebook and other forms of social media, before admitting foreign travellers and visa applicants into the country.

In proposals currently under consideration by the Obama administration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposal would ask foreigner travellers to "voluntarily" provide their social media information in an optional data field section on arrival and departure forms. But Buchanan says voluntary disclosure won't keep anyone safe, and "if we want to win on the digital battlefield, mandatory screening is required."

Buchanan, who sees the Orlando carnage as a terrorist attack, incidentally has a highranking (92100) from the National Rifle Association for his support for gun rights.

The debate over mandatory social media scrutiny has intensified after the San Bernardino terrorist onslaught by a Pakistani-American couple and the Orlando carnage by an Afghan-American, with both cases involving social media postings and possible red flags. But Buchanan's bill pertains only to foreigners entering the US, not American citizens; the Orlando carnage perpetrator was a New York born American, albeit of Afghan origin.

Civil liberty mavens see a slippery slope in such omnibus scrutiny , including in the domestic context.

Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) revealed that the Oregon department of justice used a tool called Digital Stakeout to surveil people -including the department's very own director of civil rights -who used over 30 hashtags on social media, such as #BlackLivesMatter and #fuckthepolice.

"Social media monitoring software (SMMS) is being used to politically profile, track, and target innocent people who express political opinions online," the ACLU warned in a brief, explaining how "we lose the ability to discuss ideas openly when we fear we will be punished for them."

For its activism, some rightwing zealots have called the ACLU itself a terrorist group.