Visitors to US could have to reveal five years of social media activity

Trump plan would also demand disclosure of relatives' personal details

- Chris Michael

Tourists to the United States will have to reveal their social media activity from the past five years, under new Trump administration plans.

The mandatory new disclosures will apply to the 42 countries whose nationals can enter the US without a visa, including its allies France, Australia, the UK, Germany and Japan.

In a notice published on Tuesday, the US Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP) said it would also require phone numbers used by visitors over the same period, email addresses used in the past decade, as well as face, fingerprint, DNA and iris biometrics. Names, addresses, birthdates and birthplaces of family members, including children, will be required too.

CBP said the changes to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (Esta) application were required to comply with an executive order issued by Donald Trump on the first day of his new term. In it, the US president called for restrictions to ensure visitors to the US "do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles".

The plan would throw a wrench into the World Cup, which the US is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico next year. Fifa has said it expects 5 million fans at the games and millions more visitors to the three countries. Tourism to the US has slumped in Trump's second term as the president has pushed a draconian crackdown on immigrants, including recent moves to ban all asylum claims and to stop immigration from more than 30 countries.