A new policy proposal is calling for the monitoring of disabled people’s social media profiles to determine the validity and necessity of their disability benefits. According to an article published by Forbes, “the proposal, which reportedly aims to cut down on the number of fraudulent disability claims would monitor the profiles of disabled people and flag content that shows them doing physical activities.” This inadvertently insinuates that disabled people shouldn’t be seen enjoying their lives for fear of losing vital financial aid and, possibly, medical care.
The Trump administration has been working closely with the Social Security Administration to decrease the amount of false disability claims, with the belief that monitoring social media accounts of disability benefit recipients may help identify false claims and reduce the overall amount of money spent on these programs.
This proposal, like many of its policies regarding disabled people, shows a fundamental misunderstanding of disability and exploits how social media operates in order to cut claimants off from the support they need. In addition, scientific studies have shown that the majority of social media users show only the “highlight reel” of their lives, not the hardships or difficulties. Therefore, disabled people should be allowed to share the content they wish without fear and scrutiny from the government.
Click here to learn more about this new policy and how it affects you.
Relevant pages: Veterans Disability
Relevant pages: Social Security Disability