Homeland Security John Kelly said on Tuesday 7th Feb that United States embassies could ask social media passwords of the people who are applying for a visa.

The move is part of the effort to toughen vetting of visitors to screen out on people who could be a possible threat to security.

Kelly said the move was one of the things under consideration, especially for visitors from seven Muslim majority countries, which have very weak screening of their own: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

Kelly said on hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee that they are looking at some enhanced or some additional screening. He also said that they may want to get on the social media of visa applicants with passwords.

"It is very hard to truly vet these people in these seven countries, but people come in, we want to say, what websites do they visit, and give us your passwords. So we can see what they do on the internet."

He said if applicants do not want to cooperate, then they should not come into the United States.

Kelly also stressed that till now no decision were made, but said tighter screening was definitely in the future, even if it delays awarding US visas for visitors.

He said these were the things they are thinking about.

He added but over there they can ask them for this kind of information and if they truly want to come to the United States, then they have to cooperate. If not, next in line."

These seven countries were targeted in President Donald Trump’s executive order on Immigration ban, which has been temporarily blocked under court order.

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AMandeep