OF course it is, it's just a very accessible temporary one. Let's look at an uncontroversial definition of a visa (from Wikipedia): 'A visa is a conditional authorization granted by a polity to a foreigner that allows them to enter, remain within, or leave its territory.'
Just because you give things different labels doesn't make them actually different.
I don't see the point of such extreme pedantry. Even the State Department uses 'visa' as a generic term. There are also other countries besides the US, and whichever one you come from probably also uses 'visa' as a generic term on their English-language websites.
What is the real difference between the 2? One is manual while the other one is highly automated? Given the number of question on an ESTA application, visa to other countries are a piece of cake (and I don’t even talk about visa on arrival).
This is just a semantic trick to make people that there is still a visa free travel but this is no more the case.
Not just a semantic trick, but a legal one. A lot of euro countries have treaties with US, Canada, etc. for mutual visa-free travel that pre-date EU.
Soooo, they just create something that walks and talks like a visa without calling it one because the treaties never bothered to define what a visa is or isn’t.
The requirements for the travel authorizations to Canada, the EU, and the USA are not comparable to an actual visa application. Visas are more expensive, more privacy invasive, and you have to go to an embassy/consulate to get it.
All these travel authorizations are really doing is telling the governments "Hey, I am coming over".
visiting an embassy is not mandatory to get a lot of visa (even a Chinese one) most of the time you just ship your passport with a form that has less invasive question than an ESTA. Nobody but the US require you to give the handle of all your social network account…
If they ask you the questions on the travel authorization form at the port of entry instead, would it be better?
If you get denied the travel authorization, there is a chance you would have been denied in person after a long flight instead without this initial step.
OF course it is, it's just a very accessible temporary one. Let's look at an uncontroversial definition of a visa (from Wikipedia): 'A visa is a conditional authorization granted by a polity to a foreigner that allows them to enter, remain within, or leave its territory.'
Just because you give things different labels doesn't make them actually different.