The US government has begun asking select foreign travelers to disclose their social media activities as part of an expanded effort to spot potential terrorist threats.

美政府加大排查潜在恐怖威胁力度，已要求部分外国游客公开他们的社交媒体活动信息。

The request functions as a prompt on the online Electronic System for Travel Authorization¹, or Esta, a visa waiver application that many visitors are required to submit before travelling to the US.

这一要求能鼓励游客使用在线旅行授权电子系统（Esta），很多符合免签证计划的旅客在去美国旅游之前都要获得该系统许可。

The choices include platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, and additional space for applicants² to input³ their account names on those sites.

目前，可用的平台包括脸书、推特、谷歌+、Instagram、领英和YouTube等。用户在这些网站上输入用户名即可。

The Customs and Border Protection, which began the program last week, has previously⁴ said it wouldn't prohibit entry to foreigners who didn't provide their social media account information.

美国海关与边境保护局于上周开始这项计划，并已事先声明，不会禁止未提供社交网络账号的外国游客入境。

The government has faced a barrage⁵ of criticism since it first floated the idea last summer.

自从美政府于去年夏天提出该项举措，就不断有批评者提出抗议。

Privacy rights activists⁶ say there are few guidelines about how the information, once obtained, is used or shared with other agencies.

隐私权活动家称，几乎没有准则说明美国政府获得游客的社交网络信息后将如何利用或与其他机构分享。

The Internet Association, which represents companies including Facebook, Google and Twitter, has argued that policy threatens free expression.

包括脸书、谷歌和推特在内的互联网协会抗议称，该政策将限制言论自由。

Michael W Macleod-Ball, chief of staff for the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington office, told Politico last week:

上周，美国公民自由联盟华盛顿办事处主任迈克尔•W•麦克劳德-鲍尔告诉政客网：

"While the government certainly has a right to collect some information ... it would be nice if they would focus on the privacy concerns some advocacy groups have long expressed."

“虽然政府确实有权力收集一些信息……但政府更应该关注某些团体长期以来提出的各种隐私问题。”

A spokesperson for the internet privacy group Access Now told Politico the group feared that the choice to hand over social media information was not really a choice at all, and that the program could act as an opaque⁷ entry point for more exacting⁸ probes.

互联网隐私团体“正在访问”的发言人告诉政客网，他们担心民众实际上并没有选择是否向政府提供社交媒体信息的权利，而该计划只是开始更加严格的监控的幌子罢了。

"The process to enter the US is confusing, and it's likely that most visitors will fill out the card completely rather than risk additional questions from intimidating⁹, uniformed officers the same officers who will decide which of your jokes are funny and which ones make you a security risk", explained Nathan White of Access Now.

“正在访问”的内森•怀特解释说：“入境流程让人倍感困惑，大多数游客更愿意把整个表完整填完，而非回答海关人员的附加问题。这些身着制服的海关人员令人生畏，他们会决定你的玩笑是风趣还是危险。”

The US government approves around 10m visa applications a year and had 77.5 million foreign visitors in 2015. Collecting social media accounts for all visitors could produce one of the largest government-controlled databases of its kind almost overnight.

美国政府每年大约要通过1000万个签证申请，2015年，共7750万外国游客赴美旅行。美国政府如果收集所有游客的社交媒体账号，就能在一夜之间建立起由政府控制的数据库，其规模会是同类数据库中最大的之一。