Governments, there's nothing IRL on social media

Tax and immigration authorities want to look at our social media because they think the truth lies out there, but our online personas are increasingly at odds with our real-life personalities

- SANDIP ROY

They are coming for our Facebook. And Instagram. And any other social media platform we might be on.

In India, the new Income-Tax Bill 2025 proposes to empower the authorities to access social media accounts and personal emails if they suspect any income-tax evasion. Once they could break down doors and break into lockboxes. Now the law is handing them the key to a citizen's "virtual digital space".

Meanwhile in the US, the Trump administration says it needs to check the social media accounts of people applying for a green card or asylum or US citizenship. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) says social media surveillance is required to rigorously vet and screen those applying for immigration benefits.

Both proposals have unsurprisingly sparked outrage and anger. Beatriz Lopez, executive director of the pro-immigration group Catalyze/Citizens, issued a statement calling it "undemocratic surveillance" and accusing the Trump administration of "turning online spaces into surveillance traps." She warned, "Today it's immigrants, tomorrow it's US citizens who dissent with Trump and his administration."

She might have a point. In 2019, during the first Trump administration, the state department demanded visa applicants disclose five years' worth of social media history, a requirement that has since been challenged in court as violating the First Amendment. But that was about foreign nationals seeking an American visa from outside the country. This new requirement targets people who are already in the US and want to change their status.

In India, the income-tax proposal put both the Congress party and former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai on the same page. The Congress put out a social media post saying, "Warning: Your privacy is under attack", while Pai called it an "assault on our rights!"