US Working on Plan to Scrutinize Social Media in Visa Reviews

Apparently, the US Department of Homeland Security is working on a plan to scrutinize social media posts as part of its visa application process before certain people are allowed entry into the nation. The move is part of a new focus on the use of social networking sites following the shooting rampage in San Bernardino (CA).

Currently, DHS only looks at these postings intermittently and as part of three pilot programs that began in earnest earlier in 2015. It’s unclear how quickly a new process could be implemented, and other details couldn’t be learned. Investigators currently are looking for clues in Facebook posts, computer records, and elsewhere that might have hinted at the intentions of the husband-and-wife team Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik. The day of the shooting, Malik pledged allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State terror group on a Facebook account registered to a pseudonym, and counterterrorism officials are looking to see whether she made similar social media posts in the past.