Those who apply for a visa to the United States will be required to provide some more information before they can be approved. Nearly all applicants for US visas will have to submit their social media details under newly adopted rules. The State Department regulations that were introduced this month require people to submit social media names and five years worth of email addresses and phone numbers.

The changes were proposed last year and are expected to affect 14.7 million people annually. Some diplomatic and official visa applicants will be exempt from the new measures.

Previously, the only applicants who needed additional vetting were those coming from or having traveled to parts of the world controlled by terrorist groups. But now applicants will have to give up their account names on a list of social media platforms, and also volunteer the details of their accounts on any sites not listed which could be social media platform not well known in the United States.

Efforts to collect social media information for visa applicants go a few years back. in 2015 the State Department had begun asking visitors to voluntarily provide social media information.