I just deleted my entire social media presence before visiting the US – and I'm a citizen
- Reference: 1753117301
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/07/21/column_social_media_entrapment/
- Source link:
It's possible that someone and somewhere will be a Customs and Border Protection agent at a US airport, as by now we've all heard a story of how has prevented a few unlucky souls from entering the USA – after spending hours or days in a holding cell – because of [1]some post or other activity that someone decided made them unfit to cross the border.
Now that's it's happening, what can we do?
[2]
For what it's worth, I just pulled the plug on my much-beloved Mastodon account...
[3]
Mastodon account deletion notice - Click to enlarge
...as part of a more comprehensive effort to sanitize my online presence.
First I deleted all the hookup apps on my phone, before binning random and never used social apps like Periscope (remember them?) and Snap.
[4]
[5]
Next, three years after I rage-quit Twitter, I "deactivated" my account. I haven't checked, but assume new management changed its terms of service so xAI can continue use my nearly 300,000 tweets to train the next iteration of [6]MechaHitler .
2025 was the year when was when it all changed. When socials transformed from self-expression to entrapment
I also assume that if I rejoined Facebook – 15 years after I got the measure of Mark Zuckerberg and "deactivated" my account – Meta would offer to restore all my past posts and connections.
Oh yes, we've created quite a record of ourselves.
As I continued my purge, I went through the last few years of photos and scrubbed anything I felt might even be moderately provocative or offensive to anyone who might be looking. That screenshot of a news article? That random bit of art that I photographed? That poster? That face? I scrubbed them all.
[7]
Friends note that I've got an American passport – what could possibly go wrong?
I don't know, I reply. But it seems sensible to reduce my attack surface. So the photos go into the memory hole, and finally, my Mastodon account, my alternative to the radioactive bonfire socials of Twitter, small and humble and very much allergic to Nazis. Hitting that "delete" button hurt. But it had to happen.
[8]If you want a picture of the future, imagine humans checking AI didn't make a mistake – forever
[9]AI's the end of the Shell as we know it and I feel fine … but insecure
[10]AI can't replace devs until it understands office politics
[11]Meta's AI, built on ill-gotten content, can probably build a digital you
Remember the year: 2025 was when it all changed. When socials transformed from self-expression to entrapment. From now on, every word you write and every photo and video and podcast you post will be analyzed, weighed, and judged for something far more sinister than targeted advertising.
Didn't we always knew this day would come? As soon as we started leaving social tracings on the internet – [12]all the way back, 45 years, to Usenet – we knew our own words could come back to haunt us. When that was just "other people," we never cared very much and kept on sh*tposting. Now that more powerful entities have become increasingly watchful, we find ourselves careful, censorious of ourselves, and of others.
We pray to be forgotten, so that when a border agent says, "Papers, please?" they find nothing of note to indicate that you're the wrong kind of person. That's not new. Our complicity in compiling the record used against us, that part is.
[13]
I don't have any simple solutions. I don't think there are any. The only thing that can save us from this is our own agency. We have decide to reject the lure of "total information awareness" - and not just once, but on every occasion, hundreds of times a day.
Before you read this, I will have presented myself at the US border – all shiny and clean and newly sanitized – where I will flash my US passport and smile. They'll let me in. Unless someone somewhere has a dataset that wasn't deleted, and instead got integrated into a [14]profiling database that an ICE agent has at their fingertips. Something that tips the scales toward a deeper examination of my suitability.
Until I make it through the gates at immigration, I won't know whether any of this flurry of self-censoring means anything more than a way to manage my fear and paranoia.
And I suspect that's the point of it. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/25/us_student_visa_applicants_social_media_public/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/columnists&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aH64eD2seRwSqB_QcSPjNQAAABM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/07/21/supplied_mastodon_account_deleted.png
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/columnists&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aH64eD2seRwSqB_QcSPjNQAAABM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/columnists&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aH64eD2seRwSqB_QcSPjNQAAABM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/09/grok_nazi/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/columnists&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aH64eD2seRwSqB_QcSPjNQAAABM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/16/if_you_want_a_picture/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/11/opinion_column_mcp_von_neumann_machine/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/21/opinion_column_ai_cant_replace_developers/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/10/meta_copyright_digital_you/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/12/ignorance_really_is_bliss/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/columnists&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aH64eD2seRwSqB_QcSPjNQAAABM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/21/ice_enlists_palantir_to_develop/
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Unfortunatly the enhanced capabilities of processing data facilitates the WorldWideWitchhunt using the database of haite.
Mr Orwell got his dates a little wrong, though here in Europe the Stasi made a valient attempt sans technology.
Unfortunatly AI crap is used for stuff like this, be prepared to get arrested even if you literally did nothing wrong.
Our AI overlords are here and they are dumber that my imaginary dog.
Calling Trump a cunt? Because he is one, so nothing wrong with that, but he's such a big orange baby he likes to put people in prison for calling him a cunt.
Trump portrays himself as some modern cnut holding back the sunami of liberalism which is making American men pinko snowflake communists. Whilst the truth is that he is a 100% self serving, draft dodging, gangster completely devoid of any morality whatsoever.
From Cnut to Cunt - where are we heading?
Hmmmm
Very unusual you have NO social media profiles for us to delve into..... come this way into detention for us to fully interview you over the next 14 days before transfering you to some florida shithole where we store 25 000 other people we dont like.
PS if you happen to die there, your relatives will be told you were 'shot while trying to escape'
Re: No social Media presence
I have no Social Media accounts. And I have nothing to hide. I just never saw the attraction of FB, Xitter, Insta et al. Maybe I am simply not social?
There must be many people like me. If they are all blocked from entering the US, few tourists, indeed, will enter in future.
I do post on blogs and sites like this, but these are scattered all around the internet and I always use an alias. Different aliases, mind you.
However, my real name is one a dozen, I have to say. I once found 50 FB accounts with my exact first and last name, none of them mine. That will certainly help when people start searching for me.
Never had a problem with any of this.
Re: No social Media presence
Didn't we always knew this day would come? Me too, nothing social, except El Reg and one other tech website. Social media smelled like a pile of shit back then, and now it smells even worse.
Re: No social Media presence
I'm much the same, possibly more so as I never us the phone to access bank or credit cards. I use my mobile for calls, maps and photography and very little else. I'm sure ICE and/or border security would find this very suspicious. However, despite having lived and worked in the USA long before all the current stupidity reared its ugly head and having many friends there I have absolutely no desire to visit while the current dictatorship remains in power.
Re: No social Media presence
> Never had a problem with any of this.
Yet.
This is the opening salvo in a full blown bombardment. If you think it can't get any worse, you are soundly mistaken.
No one should have this power of insight into individuals. NO ONE.
"Didn't we always knew this day would come? "
Yes... yes I did...
That's why I never bought into this whole 'social' media bullcrap...
There's nothing social about it.
It's large corporations trying to grab every piece of personal info they can to sell to advertisers.
And as history tends to repeat itself it's also a treasure trove of info for government agencies.
I'm actually surprised how long it has taken for people to finally wake up and do something about it !
Re: "Didn't we always knew this day would come? "
I'm actually surprised how long it has taken for people to finally wake up and do something about it !
Most folks have not paused photosynthesising to consider it...
But.....but......but.........
.......here you are...........still on ElReg!
I don't suppose that you have closed all your bank accounts.....and put the greenbacks under the bed!
.....or stopped using Amazon?
Still use Signal....or Telegram......or WhatsApp?
Is your cell phone a secure burner? Probably not!
What about your credit cards? The bad guys can find out a lot by snooping there!
Surely.....lot's of places for the bad guys to look for you (on the web)!
Big Brother Is Watching You
Big Brother is infallible and all-powerful. Every success, every achievement, every victory, every scientific discovery, all knowledge, all wisdom, all happiness, all virtue, are held to issue directly from his leadership and inspiration
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
Coming to a country near you...
Self-censoring to enter the Land of the Free
I'll keep my accounts, photos and whatnot, and not visit America.
Some TLA has probably hoovered up everything I have ever posted anyway so I'd likely be fast-tracked to El Salvador's death camp even if i went 'full purge'.
The land of the free^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hbullshit
Ah, yes, the country that tells everybody about "Free Speech" and is prosecuting directly or indirectly anyone actually using their rights.
That is, only the "Rich" and "Mighty" are allowed to use their "Free Speech" rights and will sue the hell out of everybody telling them a different story.
Was way before 2025
>> 2025 was when it all changed. When socials transformed from self-expression to entrapment. From now on, every word you write and every photo and video and podcast you post will be analyzed, weighed, and judged for something far more sinister than targeted advertising.
Echelon has been active for decades, with their own lines directly into ISP centrals, etc.
I spit fire in the fediverse all day.
Because I don't use my name and never post my image or family photos. There's a cat, and that's it. You must participate in Caturday. Family is what a google shared album is for. To stay safe simply silo your politics and reset your phone before reentry.
wtf
The fact that you have thought about this and executed on this is a huge stain on the usa's reputation.
Freedom of speech is in the usa constitution.
I hope everything goes smoothly on entry to the usa.
The only social media I use is LinkedIn and there.
I have no plans to visit the usa for the foreseeable future.
1984 and Fahrenheit 451 used to be warnings, now they are our reality.
Instead of book burnings stuff in digital libraries just gets deleted, sometimes forever if no backups exist.
They don't need to spy on us, just look at what we do in social media.
Privacy doesn't exist.
And I could keep going but why bother? We all heard that before, we all ignored the warnings.
Oh and the Nazis are alive, well and have the nukes.
Hope you sleep well tonight.
“Fahrenheit 451,” ha ha!
The irony is that I can download just about any book conceivable off of Anna’s Archive at any second!
…well until the FBI burns them down.
Shocked and Appalled
I am shocked and appalled that, if you download jpg photos from the iPhone over usb cord, it transmits all the exif tags undisturbed. You have to send them via email to be sure the tags were stripped off.
(It’s relevant if the photos have any chance of going to court, because opposing council is liable to subpoena any cell phone they can if there’s the slightest whiff it could have any evidence relative to the case. If it’s a generic digital camera, I think they don’t give a darn, especially if they think the camera had inhabited the inside of a toilet bowl “that one time.”)
Deleting photos?
Surely if you're doing all this you didn't bring your REAL phone with you? Because it sounds like you did if you're deleting photos and apps.
If you did, you should have wiped it, then restore from backup once you're past the border nazis. Then there's no need to censor photos and random apps you've collected over the years. If they ask why it is empty tell them you bought a new phone for your trip because it has a much better camera than yours and you haven't had time to set it up yet.
I guess you really dont know how this stuff works...
So as a US Passport holder you will not be entering the US on the basis of the Visa Waiver programme. Which is were all the "social media" stuff now comes in. And which was first talked about more than 15 years ago. During the Obama Administration. Nothing new.
In the old days before the Visa Waver was introduced you used to have to go the INS Office in the Embassy in Grosvenor Square to get the B2 visa stamped in your passport. After an interview. I got one that was valid for 5 years. You can still get the B2 last time I looked. So no worries about a DHS lottery at port of entry. Or just fly though Dublin.
As a US passport holder those nice people of DHS have had the power to look at anything on your laptop for as long as I have been flying with laptops. Since the days of the INS in the 1990's. Same goes for your phone. They usually only do this if your name and passport number pops up on the screen. Or you are a d*ck to the DHS agent on the desk.
Its going to be a DHS, State Dept or FBI flag. Nothing new there either. I had the fun experience about twenty years ago of having some bad guy with a similar name to mine on a FBI watch list. Discovered this when trying to fly domestically out of SeaTac. Did not make a big deal about it. Just always packed for the inevitable enhanced carry-on pack search going through security. Which was every time I flew for the next few years. On more than one occasion the TSA guy looked surprised when they opened my carry-on pack and discovered everything neatly packed in see-through zip-lock bags. Made the search fast and painless. As was the repacking.
Looked like the flag died after about five years but I still pack for a quick search and am always polite and professional with the TSA / DHS people. Works wonders. It helps that I look like the middle aged nerd I am.
So not worried about that stuff. What does piss me off is all the other security theater. Which adds zero actual security but gives DC plausible deniability next time something happens. Unlike last time. There have never been even close to successful shoe, belt or over 100ml liquids attacks. But there have been successful laptop battery and underpants attacks. But the TSA wont ban laptops or underpants. The only reason the underpants bomb failed to breach the hull of the aircraft was a totally random peace of luck due to the seat the bomber was in. No other reason.
Gotta love the utter stupidity of political bureaucracies trying to cover their ass.
Re: I guess you really dont know how this stuff works...
It is odd how people believe this all suddenly started on Jan the 20th this year.
Some of the stories being touted about trying to claim Trump is behind this date from before the last election. And with all the stories there is detail left out by the press that makes a major difference.
The guy with the JD Vance meme was denied entry as they didn't believe his story about being there for holiday. The Welsh backpacker WAS working illegally. Another person had missed a court date as he'd moved state without leaving a forwarding address so had a warrant.
Re: I guess you really dont know how this stuff works...
> You can still get the B2 last time I looked. So no worries about a DHS lottery at port of entry.
Visas don't ensure entry - border control can, and does, reject visa holders at the border.
I wonder what skeletons in the closet you are hiding?
Hopefully the authorities find out if it is anything serious.