DHS does not deny strong-arming tourist into letting them into his phone, only that agents sent him home because of a meme
The story circulating online — first in Norwegian newspaper Nordlys and then picked up by British tabloids — claims that during Mikkelsen’s encounter with the Department of Homeland Security, agents took his phone and found a meme depicting Vance as a bloated, smooth, bald man staring off into the distance.
Mikkelsen claims that the officials threatened to fine him $5,000 or send him to prison for five years if he refused to provide them with his phone password. The tourist ultimately agreed to hand over his information, allowing agents to look through his phone.
The reports picked up enough steam in headlines and on social media to justify CBP putting out a statement denying parts of the story.
Even when you enter China the officials won’t check your phone. They just tell you to install their “com.gov.mfa” apk downloaded from a server with invalid SSL certificate and totally not suspicious permissions like:
android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE android.permission.INTERNET android.permission.READ_PRIVILEGED_PHONE_STATE android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE android.permission.CAMERA android.permission.ACCESS_WIFI_STATE android.permission.READ_SETTINGS android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE android.permission.BLUETOOTH_ADMIN android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION android.permission.GET_TASKS android.permission.RECEIVE_USER_PRESENT android.permission.WAKE_LOCK android.permission.VIBRATE android.permission.SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW android.permission.CHANGE_NETWORK_STATE android.permission.CHANGE_WIFI_STATE android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO android.permission.MODIFY_AUDIO_SETTINGS android.permission.ACCESS_LOCATION_EXTRA_COMMANDS android.permission.REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES android.permission.BLUETOOTH android.permission.CALL_PHONE android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE android.permission.PROCESS_OUTGOING_CALLS com.asus.msa.SupplementaryDID.ACCESS com.gov.mfa.permission.SP_NOTIFY_CHANGE com.coloros.mcs.permission.RECIEVE_MCS_MESSAGE android.permission.REORDER_TASKS android.permission.USE_FULL_SCREEN_INTENT android.permission.DOWNLOAD_WITHOUT_NOTIFICATION android.permission.ACCESS_DOWNLOAD_MANAGER android.permission.LOCAL_MAC_ADDRESS android.permission.READ_APN_SETTINGS android.permission.BROADCAST_STICKY android.permission.WRITE_SETTINGS com.gov.mfa.permission.TMF_SHARK com.gov.mfa.permission.MIPUSH_RECEIVE android.permission.QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES android.permission.FLASHLIGHT android.permission.MOUNT_UNMOUNT_FILESYSTEMS android.permission.RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED com.gov.mfa.permission.PROCESS_PUSH_MSG com.gov.mfa.permission.PUSH_PROVIDER android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE_MEDIA_PROJECTION com.huawei.appmarket.service.commondata.permission.GET_COMMON_DATAand totally legitimate looking activities like
com.tencent.rtmp.video.TXScreenCapture$TXScreenCaptureAssistantActivity,com.tencent.qcloud.logutils.LogActivityandcom.tencent.liteav.audio2.permission.PermissionActivityI have entered the US around 10x/year and haven’t being searched (I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, tho), I’ve visited china multiple times last years and not been asked to install anything, either. Haven’t heard about that app install requirement before, any articles about it?
It’s not forced but the paper slip for immigration now is online, so it’s this app or the mini app inside WeChat (or waiting a couple hours in the line for the clerk that basically signs up a WeChat for you and inserts your data in the MFA mini app)
In around 2019 two of my colleagues were visiting China for business thing, one had Xiaomi phone and wasn’t asked to do anything, another had Samsung and his phone was searched.
It’s an anecdote, so make of it as you will.Maybe they saw the phone and thought “ah, he’s already covered.”
Maybe this weird off topic claim isn’t being made with intellectual honesty
android.permission.FLASHLIGHT*long slow stare* …but WHY THOUGH?
Flashlight on android is actually a flash for camera, if you want to get proper access to the camera you kind of need this one.
If the secret police are trying to find you, they could turn on your flashlight and make hiding harder?
They could fine me but I wouldn’t be paying it and they could lock me up but best believe that would be an international incident once my government gets involved, not that I would be travelling to such a hostile nation in the first place.
Wait… Lemme (ha!) get this straight…
If they want to search your phone or any electronic device when entering the US and you refuse, you get fined 5000$ and get a 5 years prison sentence???
They don’t just deny you entry and send you back?
Well, the times when the US was a reasonable and just country are long past.
When prisons are for-profit –
They lied and no one cares apparently
That’s because US customs and the TSA is not and should not be taken seriously, and they’re known to lie about pretty much everything, constantly.
If they ever make a statement, about anything, you can safely assume that the opposite is the actual truth of what they claim.
The CBP is basically an unchained lunatic with a credit card and access to unthinkable networks of treachery. We are no longer living in a time when these rules matter. Judges order are explicitly being ignored, and the Supreme Court is batting away any attempt to even disarm the lunatic.
After the agents looked through his phone, he said he was denied entry to the United States and was sent back to Norway.
People keep acting like this is new, it’s been like this since 9/11…
If they “suspect” someone, they don’t want to just let them walk away if they’re right.
So if you don’t comply, they assume the worse and detain you and throw some trumped up charges about obstructing. But they don’t even have to do that, they literally can (and likely have) ship you straight to Gitmo for life. Hell, cops even make these kinds of threats to US citizens during traffic stops. Law enforcement has been able to just make wild threats to get people to comply for like, forever
Silver lining at least, people are finally realizing this is an insane process and hopefully it’s one of the things we get to fix.
Because we sure as shit can’t just spend four years discussing if we need to limit all these govermental powers that have been racking up again. If we get the chance to fix shit we have to actually fix it.
People keep acting like this is new, it’s been like this since 9/11…
Haha, man. People have already forgotten that these were temporary measures after 9/11
Shifting baselines. It makes me wonder if people in the bad old times of monarchy might have actually been more free than we are now.
I wouldn’t say so, it was just different: previously we had sovereign monarchy where people were subjected to violence, now we have disciplinary society with much less violence
Don’t bring your regular phone when traveling to countries like China or the US
- Create an encrypted backup
- upload it to a cloud storage of your choice
- reset your phone
- once you’re past the immigration checkpoint, download the backup and restore it
This is how I’ve always done it. If anyone asks, say you just bought the device.
You’re lucky if you don’t get disappeared to a Central American gulag.
Moral of the story: Do not go anywhere near the states. It is a fascist country and they will deport you to el salvador lickety-split.
This is the sad part. My favorite uncle had a special connection to hanauma bay near Waikiki, but my mom can’t go there and remember him smiling and laughing and teaching my cousin to swim. We are all afraid that even us whiteboy Canucks will get separated in customs and never be seen again. And we’re wipepo from the most polite country on earth!
It’s almost assured that, after this term, if Hawaii hasn’t separated yet, that she’ll be too old to travel $afely. She’s getting a little fuddy now, in that she brings it up often, and tells me again for the first time about Uncle’s love of Hawaii and h bay … every time.
Trump’s people are dicks
Yes. If there are friends or family there maybe they could do a video call and walk around her favourite areas?
At this point it does not matter if you are white, pink, orange, brown, aquamarine or Oakville 70’s fuchsia. These vile asshats are drunk with power and are deporting people faster than the up and down of a hookers knickers at a convention.
Not worth anyone’s safety at this point. Being wiped from existence is a fact now in the states. Be safe.
Just a reminder for anyone travelling to the US (or any other totalitarian regime that doesn’t respect right to privacy).
I can’t remember the combination of buttons you need to hold down on your iPhone to disable biometric unlocking and to force erase your phone.
Anyone else remember these, and know the equivalent combination for Android devices, please comment.
Keeping multiple devices is the easiest way to get by. Have a burner phone for everyday use when travelling and keep your main phone either at home, or locked and unpowered in your luggage.
To disable biometrics on your iPhone, simply press the power button five times, rapidly.
This also gives you a power off option and an SOS button.
If you want to fully encrypt the phone before confiscation, turn it off.
Or press and hold the power button and the volume up button, if which clicking isn’t possible as it might not be easy for some.
This can be paired with the “Erase all Data” option in “FaceID and Passcode” settings to add another level of security.
Just remember to play dumb when you “accidentally” incorrectly enter your passcode 10 times in a row and to make sure you have a recent backup that you are able to access.
I agree with activating those options but due to timers preventing you to make another try starting after the 5th incorrect entry it will take at least 1h 21m to enter your PIN incorrectly 10 times. The last timer alone is 60min. So this unfortunately is not a quick way to wipe your iPhone in this scenario.
I suspect they will not wait 60min to let you enter the a wrong PIN for the 10th time if you even get that far. Much more likely they will confiscate the device to clone it in order to have unlimited tries for brute forcing if they really want to access your phone.
The fact that meme bothers them is hilarious though. Imagine a protest at the Capitol with a huge crowd all carrying big signs with nothing but that meme on it. 😂
People could print out a bunch and wheat paste them around downtown, especially near the vice presidential compound/naval observatory.
People keep writing words on posters like fascist can’t help but read something they see…
Their brains aren’t even recognizing it’s text.
But pictures of their leaders edited to exacerbate their worst physical features?
That hits them where it hurts.
This is why weird worked
Time to find some caricaturists to help prepare the next round of protests signs.
I don’t suppose anyone here has a link to a high(ish) resolution version of it? Asking for a friend.
Time skip 10 years in the future
History Channel: Memes in American History
🫲Aliens🫱
“couches”
Come next election cycle, there needs to be a reckoning. Not only does Trump and many of his appointees go to prison, it also needs to be investigated how so many bureaucrats and officers are so willing to do Trump’s bidding. Unless those people are removed too, Trump 2.0 is going to happen.
Is there a correlation of what’s going on here with a concept referred to as the Streisand Effect? Or does that not apply?
Edit: I guess not since they were likely not trying to spread this meme, but rather, make an example of someone who laughs at Couch Guyliner memes. Still, all the same, it would be hilarious if this incident causes people to follow this visitor’s example.
Guess what my phone’s wallpaper is now when I travel?
Ooh nice choice! I’m using a protest wallpaper too. Though mine’s that “accidental Renaissance” shot where someone graffitied “EAT THE RICH” on the Utah capitol building, with three cops standing around while a crowd protests behind them. It’s just too beautiful.
So is there any legal requirement for this photo to be achieved forever? I would love to know a copy is always on government file if need be.
Library of Congress. Get some politician to show it in Congress. On the record.
If we sane people ever manage to win the country back, that picture’s totally going into a history textbook.
Preload some Joe Biden memes for express processing.
Anyone have the meme in question?
It is the thumbnail of the article.
I was wondering if it had text to it? How funny it was? Or if it was just the picture, like you shared…?..
Like this…
Substitute “Pie” “Couches”
Eric Cartman as an adult
That’s why I pretend to be Canadian when I travel overseas. I put tiny Canadian flags on my luggage and phone. I tell people I am from Vancouver.
Lol. I promise you everyone can tell.
Lisa gets it. From “The Italian Bob,” an episode where the family visited Italy:
That’s about as cool as pretending to be any other culture.
But it’s ok for Americans somehow to fake being from a different culture to not be looked down on.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
Piss off.
Why don’t you guys put on Russian flags? More accurate.
I’d make the connection to blackface but I don’t think Americans would ever pretend to be black if they weren’t.
Yeah, I definitely understand if my fellow Americans pretending to be our Northern neighbours when travelling overseas.
We aren’t not that popular. Only Russians like us.
I can’t wait for people to start using this photo Rickroll-style.
