Are you going to the USA? Just make sure you've not said anything nasty about Trump or your phone might get searched and you won't be allowed in

[cakeorwine]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/trump-musk-french-scientist-detained

I wonder what he said in his private messages that were looked at when US Border Agents looked at his phone.

“I learned with concern that a French researcher” on assignment for the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) “who was traveling to a conference near Houston was denied entry to the United States before being expelled”, Philippe Baptiste, France’s minister of higher education and research, said in a statement on Monday to Agence France-Presse published by Le Monde. “This measure was apparently taken by the American authorities because the researcher’s phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration’s research policy,” the minister added.

"Another AFP source said that US authorities accused the French researcher of “hateful and conspiratorial messages”. He was reportedly also informed of an FBI investigation, but told that “charges were dropped” before being expelled."

Clearly some people might need a burner phone. And be careful of your social media use.

This section (which defines "terrorist activities" for the purpose of the law you linked) is loose enough to be used by an official who wants to be awkward. Perhaps he has DOGE watching over his shoulder...
uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=(title:8%20section:1182%20edition:prelim)%20OR%20(granuleid:USC-prelim-title8-section1182)&f=treesort&num=0&edition=prelim

Yeah so they do it those coming in. This hellhole of a country does it to its own citizens. Try saying the wrong thing on social media and the police will come to arrest your non hate crime incident.

Trump is unlikely to be out of power now. I predict he will hand over power to Don Junior in the fullness of time. He has immunity from prosecution. He will NOT cede an election. The checks and balances, the US constitution itself... with the House, the Senate, a subservient GOP - non of it is Trump administration-proof. The Supreme Court and Putin have delivered the death knell to Democracy in the US, and it has been signposted for years. I absolutely believe Trump was bought and paid for decades ago.

I think we've just seen the last free and fair (bar the Russian meddling) election in America for a long, long time.

I appreciate not everyone will share my catastrophic view of it all, but there we go

Your rantings become more unhinged by the day. You can't be arrested for a "non-crime hate incident"

The US can no longer be relied upon to have any diplomatic leverage in relation to the UK, or anywhere else it seems. If you end up inadvertently on the wrong aide of the law while.on holiday ....well dont expect any special favours. They can easily access your social media and if you are not a trump supporter you're toast.

I am scientist and if circumstances had been different (lone parent, hard to travel) I may well have been attending a conference in the US in a couple of months. I def have anti Trump things on my phone. I’d be asking my managers if I could back out of going I think.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/20/europe/french-researcher-expelled-trump-intl-latam/index.html

There could be more to this
“ The French researcher in question was in possession of confidential information on his electronic device from Los Alamos National Laboratory— in violation of a non-disclosure agreement—something he admitted to taking without permission and attempted to conceal.”

I wonder how Americans genuinely feel knowing they now live under a fascist regime?

On an ETSA application it asked for your social media. Mines very left wing so I shut it all down before travelling over there otherwise I promise could have been subject to a ton of scrutiny. I went with a big group from around the world and you could correlate how long we spent having immigration checks with the colour of each person's skin. I was blonde at the time and am was white and was through in about ten minutes, similar to a very pale Norwegian woman. The person with the darkest skin they spent about 4 hours with and went through everything he owned- phone, laptop, interrogated his plans. That was Trumps first presidency

The responses to this are ridiculous.

There is clearly far more to this story than the edit are telling us. And let’s be honest here, people always claim they’ve done nothing wrong.

Customs aren’t stopping random tourists and asking to check their phones and anyone who has called trump a twat is being deported. For this man’s phone to have been checked he clearly already raised red flags and was found to have messages which amount to terrorism. Funny how the media haven’t published them to prove just how easily someone going to disneyworld is going to be deported. That’s because there are more to the messages than we’re being told.

As for all the hysteria over going to America, I absolutely wouldn’t want to live there, my DS’ GF is American and I absolutely don’t want him to live there either. But this notion of boycotting a country because you don’t like Trump is ridiculous. The man is a moron, but he and his cronies are likely to be in charge now for the foreseeable. And America is America. It’s not like the foreign office is advising people not to travel. The media are doing a good job of whipping up hysteria though.

So you are saying it isn't safe for people who have messages that meet the criteria of terrorism, not for everyday people?

Links to the articles of holidaymakers who are routinely being deported for criticising trump? Oh wait. There aren’t any.

We’re talking about one person here. one person who was clearly up to no good if the article linked to above is anything to go by.

But the rabbit hole dwellers and the gutter press are anxious to whip this into a frenzy about how if you go and see Mickey Mouse your phone will be searched and if you’ve said anything anti trump you’ll be deported when there is 0 evidence to support that.

the people buying into this shit are akin to the Covid conspiracy theorists and the flat earth brigade.

My partner was on a site saying it’s not left v right but rich v poor, and pointing out Musk and Trump are not about to help most people. He got permanently blocked off all Meta apps (fb, Wattsapp, messenger, Insta). All of Meta.
I don’t get on there anymore. I really miss Instagram but I value freedom more.

Remember - these social medias are owned by someone who is protecting their agenda. Go to a publicly owned app.

An American citizen was recently imprisoned for peaceful protesting against America’s support for Israel. His wife was 9 months pregnant and the Trump regime moved him from New York (where he is from) to a prison in Louisiana because they were hoping that a Louisiana judge would be more willing to imprison someone (illegally currently) for speaking out against the government.

This isn’t hyperbole.

A colleague of mine was stopped and had his phone taken away to be searched. Then he was questioned on the contents. It was quite grueling

Sure sounds like what Musk and his stooge are doing

This is a senior French researcher btw. It is not impossible he was up to no good but it would be like an Oxford don turning out to be a terrorist, highly unlikely.

Just don't go then!

This is fascism.

I dislike Trump but don’t get the boycott stuff. Those Trump voters were there before Trump and will be there after him. Was GW Bush with his Iraq obsession much better? But there are tens of millions of decent, reasonable Americans who don’t deserve a boycott and who he doesn’t represent. Should the world have boycotted the UK when we elected the lying racist Boris Johnson? What about Theresa May with her obsessive targeting of immigrants and breaking up families? Unfortunately nasty politicians are the price of democracy.

You agree they ask you for your social media details on the ESTA form.

Why do they ask for that?

You agree that they have the right to search your mobile devices when you want to enter the USA?

So if you had messages on your phone that were anti Trump and you were quite vocal on your social media about Trump - do you think that could cause a problem at border control?

This is almost worth loading my phone with anti-tango man, anti gun law, and anti home boys statements, booking a flight to the states and making a fuss at border control so that they were forced to check it.
Banned from ever entering usa? Thanks, I'll take it!

And then sell your story to the Daily Mail with a sad face .

Almost worth the price of the flights?

I suspect the majority of people from Western Europe would have negative comments about Trump on their devices so it wouldn't be difficult to find and make an example of someone who wasn't in awe of the dear leader.