US Senator urges government to abandon review of social media for visa-free visitors to the US.

Two Democratic senators in the United States Congress urged the Trump administration on the 13th to abandon a proposal that would require tourists from visa waiver countries and regions to provide their social media history from the past five years. According to a statement released on the same day on the personal website of Democratic Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts, Markey and Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote to the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Rodney Scott, urging the agency to withdraw the proposal. In the letter, the two senators said that this new policy "is a serious violation of privacy," and that "those who originally only wanted to visit the United States to see family, do business with American companies, or participate in upcoming events like the World Cup will have to accept comprehensive digital monitoring by the U.S. government." They also stated that "the online activities of ordinary tourists visiting the U.S. should not be captured and monitored by the expanding surveillance system of the Trump administration. The choice to visit the United States should not be equal to giving up personal privacy rights."