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Comment by tsimionescu

13 hours ago

Note that in the USA and a few other jurisdictions, I believe there is now a recognized possibility for the border agents to ask for access to your social media, so even wiping the phone, or even traveling without a phone, is not entirely safe.

As far as facts go I was thinking of this one case:

... where I seemed to recall it was a social media post, but it is unclear whether it's private messaging, public social media, or private messaging under a public social media account.

[EDIT] according to [1] it was on WhatsApp with a U.S national.

My understanding is that refusal to provide social media accounts, or passwords to devices, or passwords to social media accounts, can be considered suspicious in its own right and ground to be held in custody for further exam, and/or denied entry; foreigners do not get to have the same "give password" == "right to not incriminate yourself" that U.S of A. citizen have. In doubt I would assume I don't.

[0]: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/03/20/f...

[1]: https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2025/03/22/le-r...

  • Yes, as a foreigner there is no such thing as a right to enter the USA - the CBP agents can refuse you entry for any reason whatsoever and you have no recourse (they could be breaking various laws of their own and face personal liability for their own actions, of course, such as if they were seeking a bribe from you - but that doesn't give you any right to sue over their refusal to admit you). The only exception is asylum seeking, where there is a legal right for your asylum case to be heard.