French scientist denied US entry after phone messages critical of Trump found

The Nazis literally did this with a law. They made it illegal to be critical of the party. Fuck the alarm, we've already been had.

Sounds like a case of “MAGA snowflake syndrome” smh

What? A scientist who is critical of Trump?? How can that be???

Amazing to think that they criticised "freedom of speech" in Europe

Funny that the US has become more like Russia since Trump was elected.

How’d they get into his phone? Face or fingerprint?

Make sure you turn off biometrics before traveling. They can’t force you to disclose a passcode.

EDIT: Actually, if you have to travel to the USA, wipe your phone before you leave.

The US has turned in Russia for real. Russians were checking phones at the border when the war started.

I told my wife before I could never go to the US because of the stuff I write online, now I'm sure of it

I am going to die in a concentration camp before 2028

Honestly, dude probably dodged a bullet. Stay away from our shit hole country

Fuck this shitty ass country.

Travel advise: prepare for a trip to the US like you'd prepare for a trip to Russia or China. (Note: being an anarchist who thinks Putin, Xi and Trump don't deserve a separate rope for each, I wouldn't consider a visit.)

Don't bring your real computing device. Bring an empty device from which you can VPN to a system that actually has your data.

If you need to bring an encrypted device, consider the possibility that authorities will attempt to coerce you into unlocking it (and will cause you great disruption and indignity if you won't). You might be safer bringing a concealed + encrypted microSD card and a device loaded with an OS intended to be searched. If the data matters, make sure you cannot unlock your device under coercion.

(Trivial method: send your friend in the US a snailmail letter. Ask them to keep the letter until your arrival. Into the letter, steganographically embed the OTP key material to obtain the passphrase to decrypt your device. Now to decrypt the device, three things will be needed: your cooperation and knowledge, the device, and the letter. And you can deny that the letter contains anything.)

Edit: upgraded advise - mail your local contact an encrypted MicroSD card. Cross the border with a Raspberry Pi in factory packaging, or buy it locally (they're still permitted, despite their widespread use by anarchists).

Hey, that's a good thing in my book, I guess.

Same way as America prospered with talent fleeing a corrupt Europe in the past, now Europe can get that lost talent back from a corrupt America. The more they feel unwelcome and undervalued the more they will flock or stay wherever their talent can flourish and advance our progress as a society.

No complaints from me on that. 🤷‍♂️

All countries should advise their citizens against travelling to the USA. Edit: fixed typo.

Would be helpful if we could see those messages so we can form an opinion.

Fucking hell. Freedom of speech isn't a thing anymore and all those shitheads who were crying about simply being called out for saying things are fine with the government punishing people for saying things.

I have a burner but it seems like you need to create social media accounts filled with non political content and keep them updated so they don't look fake. Anyone know how to automate this?

I wonder how they search it. I doubt they manually read every fucking text message in all apps, so I guess they search for keywords or something.

So, let's say someone wanted to get someone in trouble, they could write them an email with some "incriminating" white text on white background and have them stopped by the thought police at the border.

It would be funny if they stopped some Canadian Mexican returning from Cancun and found shittalk about Trump on his phone.

Btw. Does anyone have Ted Cruz's email address?

Freedom of speech, eh? Guess I'm banned if they find out about this account or my Bluesky account.

immigration officers at an airport searched his phone

There's no mention in the article if this search was voluntary, or not.

Edit: For the downvoters, please point out where I was wrong; I'd honestly really like to know if it was voluntary or not.

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I seriously doubt the intelligence of anyone still traveling to the USA. I hope whatever project he is working on is not critical.

So people these days still not understand that border crossing are a sensitive location?

Like, literally, anywhere you go, the first thing you should do before leaving is encrypt and reinstall / factory reset (which should delete all encryption keys to the old data) the devices. And if you have very sensitive stuff, use a disk overwrite program, and for phones start recording a video with the phone aimed at like a wall (and turn off the audio recording). Leave it recording overnight and it should fill up your phone. Use 4K recording to fill the storage faster. Then just wipe the phone again. Now, DONT DOWNLOAD ANYTHING THAT COULD BE CONSIDERED SENSITIVE. Load the phone with innocuous things like pet photos, nature, etc... and act like a "normie". Don't have anything critical of any politician, especially not of the country you're visiting, nor of its allies. Its best to not have any social media apps, preferrably, you should never post things under your name, but if you already did have such accounts, delete them.

If they ask you "Do you have any social media accounts" you say "I don't recall having any" or "I don't think so" and "I'm not the type of person to use social media". Or alternatively, you can have a social media account that have only non-political posts, and show then that.

Edit: To be clear, don't travel to the US. But this should be how you prepare for border crossings, even if it isn't the US.

The USA has no place criticising the actions of other countries. Never has.

Welcome to Trumps America.

Where everything that Trump doesnt like, or is legitimately critical of him, or is just an opinion that Republicans don't like.. is Terrorism.

Seems an awful lot like that oppressive government tyranny the ammosexuals were feverishly polishing their rifle barrels to, doesnt it? I wonder why they are all so suspiciously silent! /s