The US Homeland Security Department might introduce a new process into the visa application clearance procedure where it would be permitted to monitor applicant's social media posts. 

The move will monitor social media posts of certain people before they are permitted entry into the country, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The new plan to be incorporated comes in the aftermath of the mass shooting in San Bernardino earlier this month, in which 14 persons were killed by a self-radicalised Muslim couple, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik.

The female shooter, Tashfeen Malik, is said to have been vocal about her jihadi affiliations on social media and her comments were missed even though the visa review at present is a three-step and thorough process.

The Wall Street Journal mentioned that at present Homeland Security officials only look "intermittently' at the social media gushings of visa applicants and in the process critical clues might be missed out.

Apparently, there was an order that prohibited scanning in detail applicants social media comments through 2014. ABC news cited John Cohen, a former acting under secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, as saying "During that time period immigration officials were not allowed to use or review social media as part of the screening process."

The government did not want to face bad publicity keeping tabs on online social media activity by foreign applicants for visas, more so in the wake of the disclosures made by Edward Snowden about how mobile phone traffic and data of the public were being mined by security and spy organisations in the US.

US President Barack Obama, after the San Bernadino incident, in a speech had recommended "high-tech and law enforcement leaders to make it harder for terrorists to use technology to escape from justice."

On Monday, US federal officers said that Malik had sent two private messages to friends in Pakistan on Facebook in 2012 and 2014, pledging her support to jihad and expressed that she wanted to be a part of the cause, reported LA Times.

The couple are being investigated to see if they had received any monetary help or instructions from Islamic groups.