FORT LAUDERDALE -- U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is considering a scaled-down version of its controversial proposal to require travelers entering the U.S. from Visa Waiver Program countries to submit five years of social media history.
Speaking here during the U.S Travel Association's IPW 2026 conference, Matt Davies, an executive director at CBP's office of field operations, said the agency is reviewing 2,000 public comments about the proposal, which was published in the National Register in December. It has faced heavy criticism both abroad and from U.S. travel industry stakeholders.
He said that instead of making five years of history a requirement for all individuals seeking approval to travel to the U.S. through Electronic System for Travel Authorization, CBP is considering a more targeted approach in which the amount of social media information that visitors are required to submit is dependent upon the answers they provide as they work through the application process.
He called the idea "a waterfall approach."
"It's not focused on everyone," Davies said.
Any ESTA requirements related to social media won't happen before the World Cup starts in June, he added, and aren't likely to happen until late this year at the soonest. CBP plans to issue a follow-up federal notice after completing its public comment review, and that notice will trigger a second public-comment period.
Davies also said that CBP hasn't changed its policies or approach related to U.S. entry during the Trump administration, despite the view of many that enforcement has gotten tougher.
"The numbers are such that if you're a traveler crossing the border into the U.S., you have a better chance of getting hit by lighting once in your lifetime than of having your phone searched by CBP," he said.
Those remarks were similar to comments made by U.S. Travel's head of government relations Erik Hansen on an upcoming episode of Travel Weekly's The Folo podcast. One in 10,000 visitors making U.S. entry have their cell phones searched by CBP, Hansen said, in line with numbers during previous presidential administrations.