https://www.theverge.com/policy/806425/ice-social-media-surveillance-free-speech-assaultAs Immigration and Customs Enforcement carries out raids across the country, the agency is working rapidly to expand an online surveillance system that could potentially track millions of users on the web. Federal records uncovered by The Lever reveal that ICE is paying $5.7 million to use an AI-powered social media monitoring platform called Zignal Labs, something Will Owen, the communications director at the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP), calls an “assault” on democracy and free speech.The “real-time intelligence” platform is capable of ingesting and analyzing vast amounts of publicly available data, like social media posts, according to its website. In a pamphlet shared by The Lever, Zignal Labs says it uses machine learning, computer vision, and optical character recognition to analyze more than 8 billion posts per day in over 100 languages. This allows it to process and sort data into “curated detection feeds” that ICE could use to flag individuals for deportation.The pamphlet highlights Zignal’s ability to capture geolocated images and videos while providing alerts and information to “operators.” One example states that Zignal Labs used its technology to analyze a Telegram video showing “the precise location of an ongoing operation in Gaza.” The company says its tool identified emblems and patches to “confirm the operators involved,” allowing it to notify operators on the ground. That means ICE could potentially trace someone’s location based on the location attached to a video posted on TikTok, or even a picture on Facebook.
ICE procured the contract with Zignal Labs through Carahsoft, a firm that deploys IT solutions for government agencies. Zignal Labs most recently partnered with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to analyze weather events from public and online media sources. It also inked a contract with the US Secret Service in 2019 and works with the Department of Defense and Department of Transportation, according to The Lever. The Verge reached out to Zignal Labs with a request for more information about its contract with ICE but didn’t immediately hear back.Surveillance on social media isn’t anything new. In 2016, the American Civil Liberties Union found that police were using a CIA-backed tool called Geofeedia to track protesters of police brutality across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. But with billions of dollars in funding, ICE has the budget to employ an array of social media monitoring tools that could lead to arrests and deportations across the country.“With billions of dollars to spend on spyware, it’s extremely alarming to think how far ICE will go in surveilling social media,” Owen says. “ICE is a lawless agency that will use AI-driven social media monitoring not only to terrorize immigrant families, but also to target activists fighting back against their abuses. This is an assault on our democracy and right to free speech, powered by the algorithm and paid for with our tax dollars.”Earlier this month, a report from Wired revealed that ICE plans to hire almost 30 workers to comb through content on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, and other social platforms to “locate individuals who pose a danger to national security, public safety, and/or otherwise meet ICE’s law enforcement mission.”
A document seen by Wired shows that ICE is requesting information from contractors who could help the agency carry out the initiative, which may even require workers to search for data about a target’s family members, friends, or coworkers to pinpoint their whereabouts for ICE officers. The document notes that ICE would place around 12 contractors in a monitoring facility in Vermont, while 16 staff members would work in California, with some required to be available “at all times.”David Greene, civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, tells The Verge that automated and AI-powered monitoring tools will give the government the ability to “monitor social media for viewpoints it doesn’t like on a scale that was never possible with human review alone.” Greene adds, “The scale of this spying is matched by an equally massive chilling effect on free speech.”Outside social media, 404 Media reports that ICE has tapped into license plate-scanning security cameras, as well as gained access to a tool that tracks the movement of millions of phones.The Trump administration’s social media surveillance plans extend beyond ICE, with Citizenship and Immigration Services proposing an initiative that would require people applying for US citizenship or personal residency to provide their social media account handles. In 2019, the State Department began requiring some visa applicants to list their social media handles on sites they’ve used within the past year, but the agency expanded it to include more kinds of nonimmigrant visas in June.
The US government has already started trawling social media for posts that don’t align with the Trump administration’s viewpoints. In March, it began an AI-powered “Catch and Revoke” initiative to track down posts from student visa holders that appear to be in support of Hamas or other designated terror organizations. The State Department also announced earlier this month that it revoked the visas of six people who the US claimed “celebrated” the shooting of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk. This week, ICE arrested nine street vendors on New York City’s Canal Street shortly after a conservative influencer tagged ICE in a post showing vendors in the area.But now, with a powerful AI social media monitoring tool in the hands of ICE, the agency won’t need influencers to flag individuals for deportation — and it will only get riskier to speak freely on the internet.“This is another example of Big Tech CEOs partnering with an increasingly authoritarian federal government as part of Trump’s ongoing attempts to clamp down on free speech,” Sacha Haworth, executive director of the Tech Oversight Project, tells The Verge. “This should terrify and anger every American.”
Why do right wingers love the surveillance state so much?
>>1452077>Implying the government hasn't been doing this sort of thing since the Patriot Act>Implying browns don't deserve it>Implying non-American invaders have rightsAt least its being used against the right people for a change. Hopefully everyone south of a California tan gets sent right back to the shitholes they came from. If nothing else good happens in the next half a century, that alone will be worth whatever expense is required in rights and effort.
>>1452114you're still never going to be white or american
>>145212690% of this site is Americans you mouthbreathing mongoloid. We're all Americans. The browns are still foreign invaders, but there is only a tiny minority of non-Americans on our Sudanese Sideways Armpit Shaving Forum.Stop derailing every thread this way you shitstain.
the more esl shill screeches that he's white, the sadder it is
Trumpest building the best surveillance state, it's going to be the best surveillance state anyone has ever seen
>>1452139>Entire premise for a post just reads out like 'Me Chinese, Me Play Joke, Me Go Pee Pee In Your Coke'You could at least try to make your arguments more interesting, buddy. We're not asking much here, just that you elevate your discourse to the rough level of the lowest human being. But I suppose that's too much for you.
>>1452185whoa esl shill, take some deep breaths. if this fake job stresses you out so much you can always quit
My first instinct is to immediately point out all the surveillance and censorship the Democrats did over the past decade. Then I realize no one is opposing this, like no one opposed it back then, because we're heading towards a one party government at some point. The next Democrat is going full blown fascism and open borders anyway. Who cares
>>1452191>muh both sideswe know, esl shill, we know
>>1452195Ivan is not the esl shill though
>>1452191>full blown fascism and open bordersIncredible.
>>1452195You are now breathing manually, and you're fully aware of the weight of your tongue.
>>1452222nothing wrong with mindfulness-promoting techniques
>>1452077how much did they pay the guy who made the pokemon video, they weren't paid enough.
>>1452077>the agency is working rapidly to expand an online surveillance system that could potentially track millions of users on the web.Is this the same as, or different than the social media surveillance programs Biden was authorizing the post office to carry out?
>>1452230yes, and what about his son's penis
Wait a minute, Biden did this exact same thing with immigration already Trump's just copying Bidenhttps://www.aclu.org/news/national-security/is-the-government-tracking-your-social-media-activity
>>1452231I have no idea, what about it, you freaking weirdo? Why don't you ever stop talking about it? Friggin fag.
>>1452233people don't forget
>>1452232Biden doubled the surveillance budget for ICE?
>>1452233Did you see the photos?
>>1452254Yes, Hunter Biden's penis was on the larger side. Possibly surgically altered.
>>1452276Nope that's all natural 100% American beef
>>1452240Dunno what the budget was but he turned the US postal service into a fucking social media surveillance apparatus
Government shouldn't be surveilling its own citizens. I don't care what banner they stand under. Death to tyrants!
>>1452077you lost tranny
>>1452385You're about 110 years too late on that.
>>1452077So reading what people post on social media is an assault on free speech? Are these "viewpoints it doesn't like" related to committing crimes?Stop posting pictures of your gang tats and illegal firearms to Facebook if you don't want people to know you're committing crimes."Millions" seems like a decent investment for the amount we'll save by deporting people here illegally. If you think law enforcement isn't going to use AI to make them more effective at their jobs you're truly an idiot.
>>1452522you're not american or white
>>1452398It has been a long investigation.
>>1452522They literally demonstrated they're willing to>Drag protestors across police lines to justify attacking the whole protest>Arrest people for doing shit like playing the imperial march next to them>Shoot people in the head with bean bags for telling them offI don't wanna hear shit about "oh well don't announce you're committing crimes and there's no problem!". They've already escalated to the point where using your 1st amendment rights against them is being treated as a crime. It isn't a hypothetical anymore, it's just outright happening.
MAGA sucks Trump's micropenis.
>>1452559Stop cherry picking videos where libs edit out the bricks being thrown and people spitting on cops before they get Shrekd. No one believes your “mostly peaceful” bullshit, and I don’t care about your gang banging wife beater pets being shipped out of this country, either.The fact that you losers could pick some random Tuesday when everyone else was working and screech about not having kings all fucking day while I was at work tells me freedom of speech is doing fine if your words aren’t followed by bricks.The most laughable part of the whole thing is that you think liberals are champions of free speech.
>>1452585>uh all the stuff happening is edited out!>ignore your lying eyes and ears and believe the admin that's been caught lying more than it's been caught telling the truth
>>1452583I bet you have dreams about that at night
>>1452593Here's a video of Antifa using a U-haul to try to bust down Coast Guard base>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di__O-v81gA
>>1452596>muh AntifaWhat kind of 80 year old boomer is supposed to fall for this?
>>1452596And here's a video of ICE literally grabbing a protestor over their own line to use it as an excuse to arrest them>https://www.kptv.com/2025/10/26/video-portland-ice-building-shows-arrest-after-agents-appear-pull-protester-over-line/Here's ICE assaulting a literal blind man for protesting them>https://www.news10.com/video/blind-man-detained-dragged-by-federal-agents-into-portland-ice-facility/11191322/Here's ICE arresting someone purely for mocking them with the Imperial March>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES8JXoFKZrAHere's ICE literally kidnapping a 13 year old boy with a very vague explanation that "oh he threatened another kid" even though that makes no sense for them to be involved at all seeing as his family is here legally>https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/15/us/13-year-old-detained-ice-boston
>>1452615>defending terrorist orgUh oh watchlist melty
>>1452619Esl
Erase the troons
>>1452077you lost tranny (sorry couldn't help myself)
>>1452135>The browns are still foreign invaders>>1452135 should be worried about being arrested and deported out of America by ICE then
