by Azeez Adeniyi

The United States is planning to extend its social media checks on immigrants to include Chinese visitors.

It may also include visitors submitting passwords to their social media platforms in order to ensure they are not terrorists.

The extension will mean that Chinese visitors will disclose their social media profiles on popular social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection has said the question will be asked online but stated that it will be ‘optional’.

Those who don’t wish to answer will have their travel requests processed “without a negative interpretation or inference,” the notice said.

Homeland Security Secretary, John Kelly told a congressional hearing that the Trump administration is looking to ask travelers and visitors to submit their passwords as part of efforts to screen out terrorists.

“If they come in, we want to say, what websites do they visit, and give us your passwords. So, we can see what they do on the internet,” Kelly said.

CBP spokeswoman Jennifer Evanitsky said travelers can submit any social media platform they want.

Evanitsky said; “A decision hasn’t been made on which platforms will be on the drop down, but travelers can submit any platform they want.”

“The collection of social media identifiers will not be used to prevent travel based on an applicant’s race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation,” Evanitsky said. ” The social media provider will not be asked to violate any privacy settings or policies.”

Azeez