ICE Wants to Build Out a 24/7 Social Media Surveillance Team

[CousinIT]

https://www.wired.com/story/ice-social-media-surveillance-24-7-contract/

FREE read: https://archive.ph/qwuk0

Seriously, read the whole thing, especially the last paragraph - see that at the link. I can only include a few of them here.

. . .

Together, these teams would operate as intelligence arms of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division. They will receive tips and incoming cases, research individuals online, and package the results into dossiers that could be used by field offices to plan arrests.

The scope of information contractors are expected to collect is broad. Draft instructions specify open-source intelligence: public posts, photos, and messages on platforms from Facebook to Reddit to TikTok. Analysts may also be tasked with checking more obscure or foreign-based sites, such as Russia’s VKontakte.

They would also be armed with powerful commercial databases such as LexisNexis Accurint and Thomson Reuters CLEAR, which knit together property records, phone bills, utilities, vehicle registrations, and other personal details into searchable files.

. . .

The plan goes beyond staffing. ICE also wants algorithms, asking contractors to spell out how they might weave artificial intelligence into the hunt—a solicitation that mirrors other recent proposals. The agency has also set aside more than a million dollars a year to arm analysts with the latest surveillance tools.

Earlier this year, The Intercept revealed that ICE had floated plans for a system that could automatically scan social media for “negative sentiment” toward the agency and flag users thought to show a “proclivity for violence.” Procurement records previously reviewed by 404 Media identified software used by the agency to build dossiers on flagged individuals, compiling personal details, family links, and even using facial recognition to connect images across the web. Observers warned it was unclear how such technology could distinguish genuine threats from political speech.

[Arazi]

1. This Nazi regime will rely less on informers and just do its own research

[Eugene]

2. East German Stasi but much better resourced

[vapor2]

3. Well crap

So since J D is on bluesky, are we safe there?

[underpants]

4. Hi Big Brother

[no_hypocrisy]

5. Agent Mike on steroids

[Celerity]

6. This part summarises the expansive threat clearly:

With plenty of historical analogs to choose from, privacy advocates warn that any surveillance that starts as a method of capturing immigrants could soon be deployed for ulterior purposes. ICE’s proposal to track “negative sentiment” is a clear example of how the agency’s threat monitoring bleeds into the policing of dissent. By drawing in the online activity of not only its targets, but friends, family, and community members, ICE is certain to collect far more information outside its mandate than it is likely to publicly concede.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

7. I've been assured that "defund" is not an acceptable slogan, sooooo....

[TheBlackAdder]

8. Warrantless spying on American citizens within our borders.

[Volaris]

9. Oh, well let me make it easy for them:

Hey Kristi..Fuck you.
Fuck ICE.
Fuck PedoDonnie.
Come get me.