Visa-exempt visitors to US will need to disclose 5 years of social media history

State Department has revoked about 85,000 visas since January

The proposal would apply to visitors from 42 countries, including the UK, France, Australia and Japan, who do not need a visa to enter the US. AFP

The administration of US President Donald Trump plans to order visa-exempt foreign tourists to disclose their social media histories from the last five years before entering the country, according to an official notice.

The proposal, laid out in a notice published on Tuesday in the Federal Register, would apply to visitors from 42 countries, including the UK, France, Australia and Japan, who do not need a visa to enter the US.

Currently, those travellers only need apply for a waiver known as the Electonic System for Travel Authorisation (Esta), which still requires them to provide certain personal details.

Under the proposed new rules, the collection of social media data would become a "mandatory" part of Esta applications. Applicants would need to provide their social media histories from the last five years, according to the notice.

They would also have to submit other "high-value data fields" including phone numbers from the last five years, email addresses from the past decade, personal details of family members and biometric information.

In April, the Trump administration announced it would begin screening student visa applicants' social media for anti-Semitic content.

The news comes after the State Department said that 85,000 visas have been revoked since January.

"President Trump and Secretary [Marco] Rubio adhere to one simple mandate, and they won't stop any time soon," the department said in a post accompanied by a photo of Mr Trump emblazoned with the words "Make America Safe Again".

About 8,000 student visas were among those rescinded, CNN reported, quoting a State Department official.

Some of the reasons for the revoked visas include drink-driving, assaults and theft, Fox News reported, which together account for almost half of those rescinded in the past year.

The Trump administration is continuing its immigration crackdown, and last month announced that it had halted immigration applications from citizens of 19 “high-risk countries”, after the shooting of two National Guardsmen in Washington allegedly by an Afghan refugee.

Mr Trump has made battling illegal immigration – and limiting new immigration – a cornerstone of his second administration.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has continued to carry out raids in cities with large immigrant populations, purportedly aimed at detaining violent criminals. But they have also swept up people who have simply overstayed their visas, and even US citizens.