US Department of Homeland Security to check Facebook and Twitter activity before granting visas

In the wake of the San Bernardino shootings in California, the US Department of Homeland Security has implemented new security measures for its visa application process which will see the department sift through the social media profiles of applicants.

The Wall Street Journal (via BGR) reports that it is only a pilot program at present and full details on how it will be implemented aren't yet available. It will not however, involve reading through all of a person's posts made on social media.

At present the DHS only looks at social media sporadically and as part of three pilot programs that were first implemented earlier this year. Government officials have kept further details under wraps as "they do not want to reveal the precise process they use to try and identify potential threats".

Another unknown is whether or not Facebook, Twitter and other social media companies will aid the DHS, and if they do, to what extent they'll help.

On 2 December 2015 married couple Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik killed 14 and injured 22 others in a mass shooting carried out in San Bernardino, California, before being shot and killed themselves by police.

It was an attack carried out in the name of Daesh (Isis), and it was discovered in the aftermath that Malik used Facebook under a pseudonym to pledge her allegiance to Islamic State.