ICE Expands the Surveillance State

While border czar Tom Homan announced last week that the surge of federal agents in Minnesota could be winding down, he signaled that other cities could be next. “I’m hoping other sanctuary cities look at what happened,” he said, threatening cities that have various levels of protection for undocumented residents.

It’s unclear where ICE’s next moves might be, but they have also been ramping up their surveillance online. The Department of Homeland Security has sent hundreds of administrative subpoenas to social media companies like Discord, Reddit, Google and Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, trying to identify users who have posted about them over the last few months. The subpoenas request identifying information about users who may be using pseudonyms online - things like real names, phone numbers, email addresses and more. Because they are administrative and not judicial warrants, the companies aren’t generally required to blindly comply with the majority of these requests - but recent reporting shows that the social media giants seem to be more than happy to hand over data on their users who are engaging in protected free speech behavior.

While trying to unmask anonymous online users, DHS is also now enabling agents to engage in what it calls “masked engagement” - creating fake accounts and identities and using sophisticated tools to keep them straight and prevent them from being caught up in spam or fraud filters. Beyond simply viewing what’s publicly available online, agents are now able to directly connect with users on platforms by friending or liking them, giving them access to information that might not be shared with the public.

We also discuss the upcoming Senate vote on the SAVE Act, a major threat to the basic right to vote in the United States.

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