Australians are abandoning travel to the US, and boycotting World Cup matches there next year, as the Trump administration flags new rules that will soon require visitors to hand over their social media history when applying to enter the country.
In a notice published on Tuesday, the US Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP) said tourists to the US from 42 countries including Australia would have to reveal all of their social media activity over the past five years under the new rules, which are up for a 60-day review before coming into effect. It would be a part of the application for a visa waiver under the ESTA application process.
The rules were drawn up in response to an executive order made by Donald Trump on the day of his inauguration in January which purported to “protect” the US from visitors, instructing that visas should be denied to anyone with “hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles”.
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Australian tourists have described the US mandate to sweep social media posts, as well as collect comprehensive “high-value data” on family members such as phone numbers, dates of birth and residencies, as “horrifying” and “draconian”.
But travel data reveals Australians were already avoiding the US before the detailed rules were announced. They have changed travel plans to avoid entering the US and even moved reunions with family members to other countries.
In 2019, the last free year of travel before the Covid-19 pandemic shuttered borders across the world, more than 100,000 Australians would regularly arrive in the US each month. That figure is now consistently in the low 50,000s, and below 50,000 for the first time last month, figures from the US department of commerce show.
The number of Australians arriving in the US in November fell to just 45,408, 11% lower than the same month last year.
Jonathan, who asked for his surname to be withheld, works in project delivery and is from Sydney. The 42-year-old had planned to return to the US, his country of birth, for next year’s Fifa World Cup but changed his plans several months ago. He said news of the policy changes overnight made him feel he had made the right call.
“I have a lot of family and friends there, but I will actively avoid it now,” he said.
“The whole thing disgusts me and is horrifying, frankly. While I think I would be protected as a citizen, my son and my wife are not US citizens. My son was really excited to go and he was really sad when I told him we wouldn’t go – but now I feel validated.”
He said his wife’s Chinese citizenship was potentially a cause for trouble at the border, though his son was an Australian citizen.
Jonathan said he had openly criticised Trump online.
“It’s not worth the risk. Why would you put your family in danger for a holiday? If [US immigration authorities] did a search history of me, my position would be very clear.”
Another dual US-Australian citizen, who asked to remain anonymous, said the proposals were “terrifying”, given her family is in the US.
“I was already planning not to visit until the next election, and now definitely will not. Everyone on US soil is theoretically protected by the constitution. If you are applying for a visa overseas, however, those protections do not apply,” she said.
“This development does not bode well for people in the US either and anyone celebrating the idea of such draconian measures should think about what it foreshadows.”
An Australian who lives in Sydney and also asked to remain anonymous said he would not be visiting the US for next year’s World Cup because of US policy changes. After changing their plans earlier in the year, his family of seven will instead limit travel to Canada and Mexico.
“It feels like a continuation of what has been going on since the start of this administration – they are getting more and more exclusive and less open,” he said.
His brother and his family live in the US, he said: “Unfortunately, for the time being, they’ve got to come to Mexico, because we ain’t going to the USA.”
Under the new rules, border authorities will demand a range of information when visitors apply for a visa waiver under the automated ESTA system, which will move to an app-only process rather than on a website.
Authorities would also demand “high value data”, including all telephone numbers visitors have held over the same time, as well as email addresses for the past decade. Border officials will collect face, fingerprint, DNA and iris biometrics, as well as names, addresses, places and dates of birth of family members.
The plans went “beyond what a freedom-loving” western democracy would do, the shadow home affairs minister, Jonno Duniam, told Sky News on Thursday.
But the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said the US was a “sovereign nation” which had “a right to set the rules”.
Timothy Roberts, the president of the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties, said Albanese’s stance was “woefully inadequate”.
“The US is supposed to be one of our closest international friends,” he said on Thursday.
“What sort of friendship is it if we cannot even make our objections clear to such a brazen infringement on Australians’ civil liberties, and an infringement which has the obvious result of suppressing the expression of political views for those travelling to the US.”
An Australian department of foreign affairs and trade spokesperson said visa conditions were “a matter for the country that issues them”.
“Smartraveller advises Australians that US entry requirements are strict. Australians should check US entry, registration, transit and exit requirements, and ensure you understand all relevant terms and conditions before attempting to enter the United States,” they said.
