Flyers take their airport perks very seriously, so when the Department of Homeland Security announced Sunday it was suspending TSA PreCheck and Global Entry due to the ongoing DHS funding stop, those flyers took to social media to figure out what to do next--and point blame at those they saw as responsible.
Two announcements just hours apart didn't help calm fears Sunday that two of the most precious services for many frequent travelers--TSA PreCheck and Global Entry--would suspend operations until the current DHS budget impasse is settled. News reports say DHS rolled back plans to temporarily shutter TSA PreCheck after discussions with the White House, but went ahead with its plans to suspend Global Entry. The moves came with virtually no notice or time for airlines, travelers or others to prepare.
Using Rolli IQ, now with access to Meta social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and Threads, it's easy to see that social media users quickly took to their devices to try to figure out the reality of the shutdown and if TSA PreCheck would be open at a favorite airport. By just 36 hours after the initial announcement, the volume of users posting comments and information was high.
What's more interesting than simple volume, though, is how quickly this topic exploded across social media. Using Rolli IQ's Engagement Graph function, it's possible to see the rapid rise in engagment to the topic as it broke Sunday morning. Looking first at left-leaning Bluesky, which reacted swiftly to the news,
Rolli IQ shows a rapid jump in activity in the center of the graph, which represents a period between the hours of 8 am and 11 am Eastern Time on Sunday.
At first, the posts mostly avoided getting political and devoted their time to trying to figure out what to expect at the airport. This Bluesky post was merely sharing the information found as national news began covering the story.
But the posts didn't stay informational for long. Just two hours later, the same Bluesky user was sharing what he saw as the political reasoning behind the move.
Similar rapid growth trends were taking place on other social media platforms as well. Right-leaning Twitter/X joined the fray a bit more slowly than Bluesky, but exploded once it did. The rapid increase in engagement on the topic took place around 11 am Eastern Time, seen here in the rightmost two columns.
By the time Twitter/X users got into the game, DHS had reversed its decision. That put posts on the platform about the politics of it all right out of the starting gate.
By midday on the east coast, it was clear TSA PreCheck would remain open, so users took to their accounts to start the finger pointing and political fighting. The top spreaders, as determined by Rolli IQ, lined up on both sides of the political spectrum to point out the error in the ways of the other side.
And even as users on some platforms worked to stay neutral and share information about the availability of TSA PreCheck at specific airports, commenters continued to point to what they considered either the latest comedy of errors from the Trump Administration, or the end result of Democratic moves in the Senate to change immigration policy.
The bottom line is that Rolli IQ analysis of social media posts in the wake of the brief TSA PreCheck shutdown on Sunday showed a tremendous spike in engagement as users first tried to figure out how this would affect flying plans and then resorted to political fights blaming the other side for the suspension of service and subsequent flip-flop.
