'Social Media Screening for Terrorists Act' Filed

SARASOTA, FL – Visa applicants won’t be allowed into the United States without a thorough screening of the social media accounts if U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan gets his way.

The Florida Republican filed a bill in the U.S. House Friday that would make it mandatory for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to check the social media activity of all visa applicants before granting entry approval.

Titled the “Social Media Screening for Terrorists Act,” the bill covers all “public records,” including Facebook before foreign travelers and visa applicants could cross the country’s borders.

“We have to use every tool at our disposal to protect Americans,” Buchanan said in a statement, adding that ISIS reportedly has more than 40,000 Twitter accounts.

The proposed legislation comes on the heels of the Dec. 2 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif., that left 14 people dead and another 22 injured. One of the shooters in that attack, Tashfeen Malik, 29, reportedly sent two private messages on Facebook to Pakistani friends back in 2012 and 2014 pledging her support for jihad and expressing her desire to join the fight.

The discovery that Malik’s jihadist intentions had been posted to Facebook before her entry into the United States was granted has placed the Department of Homeland Security’s policy against screening social media for visa applicants under heavy fire in Washington, D.C., and across the country.

Earlier this week, Buchanan called the government’s failure to screen Malik’s social media “staggering incompetence.”

See Also:

• ‘Staggering Incompetence’ Aided Terrorist’s U.S. Entry, Buchanan Says

“We have heard repeatedly that terrorists use social media as a recruitment and communication tool and yet we don’t bother to screen their online activity before allowing them into America,” Buchanan said in a statement. “We should have been tracking their social media all along, but apparently our government was too concerned about political correctness and violating the privacy rights of foreigners. This woman never should have been allowed into our country after pledging Islamic jihad on Facebook.”

Lawmakers, both Republican and Democrat, are pushing for social media reviews for all visa applicants following the revelation that this is not already a standard practice.

The government’s policy of skipping social media postings in background checks has been brought into question in the past. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson reportedly was asked to end the policy in 2014, but refused, FOX news reported. The refusal, ABC News reported, was prompted by fears of a civil liberties backland and “bad public relations’ for the Obama administration.

As the policy’s potential pitfalls are brought into the spotlight, the administration is now reviewing its visa vetting process, ABC News reported Tuesday. Johnson, however, has been quoted as saying there are “certain legal limits” on what can be done.

Buchanan isn’t willing to accept that. He is insisting the administration reverse the policy and “put the safety of Americans ahead of the privacy of foreigners.”

Whether the administration does or not, Buchanan is hopeful Congress will take up his bill when it returns for the 2016 session in January.

“Political correctness is no longer an option,” Buchanan said Friday. “We must unleash 21st Century resources to penetrate and destroy the online activity of ISIS.”

The full text of Buchanan’s bill is available online.

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