Nothing to see here: Chicago monitoring social media for “travel violations” Nine Line News Team August 9, 2020 Nine Line News 2,034 Oh no, this isn’t creepy at all. The city of Chicago’s health officials may be peeping at your social media feed to make sure you’re not violating their travel order. Anyone visiting or returning to the city from a list of states seeing a rise in coronavirus cases is required to quarantine for 14 days. “One of the easiest ways to sort of get enough proof that there was the potential of a violated quarantine order without me having to send out an inspector or do any sort of more aggressive follow up to collect that is to look at social media,” Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said. “More aggressive follow up.” Riiiight. Your social media posts could be proof that you deserve a citation. There you are visiting family in let’s say, FLORIDA, and the next day, there you are having a slice of pizza in the Windy City. Oops. “They’re in any of the states that violated our order and then a few days later, they’re in Chicago, and they’re clearly out in Chicago, not just back, but at a restaurant or at the Bean or whatever it may be, and they’re posting about that – that’s an example of where we could use that as proof to issue citations,” Arwady said. Now, rest assured, they’re not necessarily monitoring the social media accounts of travelers, but will check them if they “identify someone of concern.” “I don’t want to like overemphasize that we’re somehow Big Brother in monitoring people’s social accounts – we’re absolutely not doing that,” Arwady said. No, no of course not. It’s all for your own good, isn’t it? “But where we already have a concern, it’s one of the easiest ways to identify people who are not just breaking the travel order but flaunting it publicly.” Okay, that’s how they’ll catch people who have a tendency to “over share,” but what about everyone else? “C’mon man,” as Joe Biden would say, what makes Chicago officials think people might just stop posting crap if they might get caught? Chicago’s travel order first began on July 6th, and is updated every Tuesday. This week, Puerto Rico was added to the list. The full list includes: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin. States get added to the wall of shame if they have “a case rate greater than 15 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 resident population, per day, over a 7-day rolling average.” If cases drop, they may be dropped from the list. Iowa, Kansas and Utah are looking good right now, and if their cases remain below the threshold, they could be removed next week. Arwady said travelers entering or returning to Chicago from “states experiencing a surge in new COVID-19 cases” will need to quarantine “for a 14-day period from the time of last contact within the identified state.” So be sure you don’t post any silly selfies or TikTok videos or whatever for the time being if you’re traveling in or out of Chicago. You just NEVER know who’s watching you…