Did the U.S. State Department issue a travel advisory to the entire world? No, that's not true: The U.S. Department of State has advised U.S. citizens overseas to exercise heightened caution due to increased tensions in various locations around the world, the potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations, or violent acts against U.S. citizens and interests.
The claim appeared in a TikTok video (archived here) where it was published on October 20, 2023. It reads (Translated from Japanese to English by Lead Stories staff):
The U.S. government has issued a travel advisory for the entire world.
In English, the claim said:
ALERT
WORLD WIDE LOCATION
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Nov 27 19:44:32 2023 UTC)
Because this and other similar posts on social network sites intentionally left important information out of context, many Japanese commented with concern. Some of these concerns are expressed in the comments below:
Does this mean we can't use the sea route?
It's finally here!
? Does this mean that WW3 has already started?
This is definitely the beginning of WW3
(Source: Twitter Screenshot taken on Mon Nov 27 19:59:30 2023 UTC)
This is not a worldwide warning or the beginning of a worldwide conflict. On the website of the U.S. Department of State, there is a travel advisory with the title "Worldwide Caution" for U.S. citizens abroad, with the date October 19, 2023. Its contents are in the screenshot below:
(Source: Screenshot taken on Mon Nov 27 20:01:44 2023 UTC from the US Department of State website)
In its latest posting, the U.S. Department of State advises U.S. citizens abroad to exercise extra caution due to heightened tensions in several locations around the world and the potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations, or acts of violence against U.S. citizens and interests.
This advisory is part of a travel warning system designed to help U.S. citizens assess the safety of a destination at any given time. On the State Department website, the agency explains that travel advisories are issued U.S. travelers going to any country in the world. Advisories are ranked from 1 to 4, with 1 being the lowest concern ("exercise normal precautions") and 4 being the highest warning ("do not travel"). Travel alerts, meanwhile, are issued by embassies and consulates "to inform U.S. citizens of specific safety and security concerns in a country, such as demonstrations, crime trends, and weather events."
For Japanese, there is no "worldwide caution." The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan has a map on their website where The countries and regions are categorized by risk level. There are no terrorist attacks, and demonstrations of violent action specifically against Japanese.
