Police officers will gain new powers to extract data from any seized device under Home Office plans, drawing criticism over privacy concerns after a tourist was allegedly denied US entry over a JD Vance meme found on his phone.
In an eleventh hour addition to the Policing Bill, introduced by home secretary Yvette Cooper, Britain’s bobbies will also be able to extract information from any online account that device can access.
The authorities are currently able to seize items like phones through a general stop and search or leveraging power-to-seize capabilities. However, according to Private Eye, officers are not yet able to check recent messages or people’s bank balances without judicial approval until the home secretary’s bill passes through the final stages of parliament.
The powers have been compared to a recent incident involving US immigration authorities, who accessed a visitor’s social media account without a warrant to find a meme of JD Vance.
Mads Mikkelsen, a 21 year old Norwegian tourist, claimed he was denied access to America because a meme of the vice president was found on his phone.
Talking to his hometown newspaper Nordlys, Mikkelsen said he had been pressured into handing over his phone at Newark Airport, New Jersey, where he had landed to visit friends in New York City.
Mikkelsen argued he had been subjected to “abuse of power and harassment” by officials, who, he says, quizzed him about “drug trafficking, terrorist plots, and right-wing extremism.”
He told the newspaper he was then taken to a holding cell “with several armed guards, where I had to hand over my shoes, mobile phone, and backpack.”
Officials then apparently threatened to imprison him or fine him $5,000 if he did not grant them access to his phone. When he handed over his device, agents uncovered a meme that showed a digitally-altered picture of JD Vance.
The image, which was a viral meme earlier this year after Volodymyr Zelensky’s Oval Office visit, showed the vice president chubbier, bald, and cartoonish.
“Both pictures had been automatically saved to my camera roll from a chat app, but I really didn’t think that these innocent pictures would put a stop to my entry into the country,” Mikkelsen said.