Anyone travelling to US issued warning to check what's on their phone

If you've got a trip to the United States planned next year, you might want to check what's on your phone before travelling.

That's right - last week the American government announced plans to scrutinise five years' worth of tourists' social media history as a condition of entry to the United States.

As per the BBC, it's going to affect visitors from dozens of countries who are eligible to visit the US for 90 days without a visa.

The specific details of the proposal are yet to be revealed, but the US public has several weeks to submit comments responding to the plan before it officially takes effect on 8 February 2026.

Essentially, if you're planning a holiday across the pond, you might be expected to provide a whopping five years' worth of social media data and ten years of email addresses, including business accounts.

The new rule is part of US President Donald Trump's January executive order to protect the US from 'foreign terrorists and other national security and public safety threats'.

A document explaining the change released by the Federal Register reads: "CBP is adding social media as a mandatory data element for an ESTA application. The data element will require ESTA applicants to provide their social media from the last 5 years."

However, it doesn't go into specifics of which social media apps will be affected and what exactly officials are going to be looking for.

When quizzed on whether this could cause a drop in tourism to the US earlier this month, Trump didn't seem particularly worried.

He said: "No. We're doing so well. We just want people to come over here, and safe. We want safety. We want security. We want to make sure we're not letting the wrong people come enter our country."

It comes after earlier this year, a Norwegian tourist claimed he was denied entry to the US after officials searched his phone and found a meme of Vice President JD Vance.

Mads Mikkelsen, 21, spoke to his country's local news outlet Nordlys in June, claiming he'd landed at Newark Airport in New Jersey on 11 June with plans to visit the country for several weeks.

However, upon arrival he was disallowed from leaving the airport and transported to a cell.

Fact Check: FALSE

Mads Mikkelsen was not denied entry for any memes or political reasons, it was for his admitted drug use. pic.twitter.com/is9eGqILUq

— CBP (@CBP) June 24, 2025

He claims that prison authorities apprehended his phone before allegedly finding two questionable images in his camera roll - one of which was a meme poking fun at Vance.

The meme in question reportedly showed Trump's right-hand man, 40-year-old Vance, sporting a bald, egg-shaped head - a meme a lot of us will recognise and Vance himself poked fun at it this Halloween by dressing up as as a version of the viral photo.

He told Nordlys: "They threatened me with a minimum fine of $5,000 or five years in prison if I refused to provide the password to my phone."

However, the border force agency denied that this was the reason the Norwegian was denied entry to America, insisting such reports are inaccurate and instead claiming he had been stopped due to substance abuse, which Mikkelsen denied.

He said: "They asked questions about drug trafficking, terrorist plots and right-wing extremism totally without reason."