US Government 'Concerned' About Your Social Media, Not Its Own Hypocrisy
A 2018 Newsweek piece outlines how the Trump administration faced a lawsuit for collecting social media information from visa applicants, raising privacy concerns. Yet, this isn't a uniquely Trumpian innovation. The US government's digital surveillance predates this, with programs like XKeyscore and PRISM, revealed by Edward Snowden in 2013, demonstrating a pervasive, decades-long appetite for
data, often without clear oversight. The concern isn't just about visa holders; the dragnet is wider. (Remember when the State Department demanded social media handles from all visa applicants in 2019?) It appears the 'threat' of social media isn't its content, but its capacity to organize movements challenging establishment narratives. Why is the government so keen on knowing what new arrivals
'like' online, but seemingly indifferent to the billions in taxpayer dollars funneled to nations violating human rights, movements that are clearly documented on those very same social media platforms? Perhaps some surveillance is more equal than others.