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

[jmdrake]

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

Documents show that ICE plans to hire dozens of contractors to scan X, Facebook, TikTok, and other platforms to target people for deportation.

www.wired.com

If you support this you're on the wrong team. Sorry. You just are.

 

[69360]

They already do this...

 

[TheTexan]

How dare the Feds use Fedbook for information

 

[PAF]

If you support this you're on the wrong team. Sorry. You just are.

"ICE Wants to Build"

They already do this...

Whose side are you on? Wait, I already know.

 

[TheTexan]

Which amendment is this one PAF I forget

 

[PAF]

Which amendment is this one PAF I forget

It's the "government keep your nose out my fucking business" amendment.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

Which amendment is this one PAF I forget

The 1st and 4th come to mind.

Another issue is how is this funded, and was this activity approved and funded by Congress?

Of course the devil is in the details. Social media is public information. If someone posts about or brags about a crime on social media, it is open for all to see. Legally, if someone sees this and reports it to the Police, then the Police would be free to look at that public data and investigate.

From the article:

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

So it sounds legal based upon a mission of investigating tips and reports, to determine if there is probable cause for further action.

But there is more in the article:

"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."

That reeks of an open-ended fishing expedition, and exceptional Big Brother surveillance. A net thrown to catch the entire population and sort them. There are no tips, no reports, no probable cause. This should go awry of both the 1st and 4th Amendments, but that would depend upon our broken, corrupted, and upside down justice system to actually work.

And as usual, any activity that touches private information, private messages, or inside information available only to the platforms should require a warrant. Otherwise, it is a clear and blatant violation of the 4th, once again, as interpreted by our corrupt judicial system.

For example, the below is blatantly unconstitutional:

"Other surveillance contracts have raised similar alarms. In September 2024, ICE signed a $2 million contract with Paragon, an Israeli spyware company whose flagship product, Graphite, can allegedly remotely hack messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal. The Biden White House quickly froze the deal under an executive order restricting spyware use, but ICE reactivated it in August 2025 under the Trump administration."

And:

"Around the same time, the agency contracted with Babel Street for Locate X, which supplies location histories from ordinary smartphone apps, letting investigators reconstruct people’s movements without a warrant."

 

[PAF]

The 1st and 4th come to mind.

Another issue is how is this funded, and was this activity approved and funded by Congress?

Of course the devil is in the details. Social media is public information. If someone posts about or brags about a crime on social media, it is open for all to see. Legally, if someone sees this and reports it to the Police, then the Police would be free to look at that public data and investigate.

From the article:

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

So it sounds legal based upon a mission of investigating tips and reports, to determine if there is probable cause for further action.

But there is more in the article:

"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."

That reeks of an open-ended fishing expedition, and exceptional Big Brother surveillance. A net thrown to catch the entire population and sort them. There are no tips, no reports, no probable cause. This should go awry of both the 1st and 4th Amendments, but that would depend upon our broken, corrupted, and upside down justice system to actually work.

And as usual, any activity that touches private information, private messages, or inside information available only to the platforms should require a warrant. Otherwise, it is a clear and blatant violation of the 4th, once again, as interpreted by our corrupt judicial system.

For example, the below is blatantly unconstitutional:

"Other surveillance contracts have raised similar alarms. In September 2024, ICE signed a $2 million contract with Paragon, an Israeli spyware company whose flagship product, Graphite, can allegedly remotely hack messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal. The Biden White House quickly froze the deal under an executive order restricting spyware use, but ICE reactivated it in August 2025 under the Trump administration."

And:

"Around the same time, the agency contracted with Babel Street for Locate X, which supplies location histories from ordinary smartphone apps, letting investigators reconstruct people’s movements without a warrant."

Also:

to hire nearly 30 contractors to sift through posts, photos, and messages—raw material to be transformed into intelligence

 

[TheTexan]

"to hire nearly 30 contractors to sift through posts, photos, and messages—raw material to be transformed into intelligence"

Seems like a waste of money, a lot more efficient if PLTR does it with AI

 

[Danke]

How dare the Feds use Fedbook for information

"ICE" needs rebranding.

Instead of "Immigration and Customs Enforcement", it should be "National Immigration and Customs Enforcement" = "NICE"

 

[69360]

Are you all really still pretending the government doesn't already spy on all of us already? They do and they don't care if it's constitutional or how they fund it. It's not going to stop. I gave up on caring. It's easier to just assume everything you do online is watched.

 

[Anti Globalist]

Could have sworn ICE was already doing this.

 

[jmdrake]

Are you all really still pretending the government doesn't already spy on all of us already? They do and they don't care if it's constitutional or how they fund it. It's not going to stop. I gave up on caring. It's easier to just assume everything you do online is watched.

Could have sworn ICE was already doing this.

So since something already is happening, accelerating it further doesn't matter? Did you feel that way about Biden's push to increase the size of the IRS?

W

'Ron Paul: Supersized IRS Will Shrink Liberty'

Aug 15, 2022

Supersized IRS Will Shrink Liberty

Ron Paul
August 15, 2022


West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin recently claimed the 15 percent corporate minimum tax contained in the Inflation Reduction Act, which should be called the Inflation Creation Act, is not a tax increase. Instead, he claimed, the bill simply closes a loophole that allows corporations to avoid paying all the taxes they owe. Despite what Senator Manchin says, the fact is the new minimum tax increases the amount of money some corporations must hand over to the government; in other words, it increases their taxes.

It is...

• WisconsinLiberty
• Replies: 3
• Forum: Ron Paul Forum

 

[Voluntarist]

"ICE" needs rebranding.

Instead of "Immigration and Customs Enforcement", it should be "National Immigration and Customs Enforcement" = "NICE"

Yeah, but there aren't any immigration teams below the National level - so no need for the National part. But you'd want to make the distinction that they're not going after ALL immigrants, merely enforcing the laws on the books - so try Legal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (LICE) ... truth in branding

 

[nikcers]

Nations have been using every tool in their arsenal to monitor foreigners that enter their borders for thousands of years.

It makes no sense that we wouldn't use modern technologies to do so.

We know from the historical record that Japanese nationals traveled to Hawaii to collect intelligence for the Pearl Harbor attacks.

This is just one of the reasons why we needed to get the borders under control because its such a significant vulnerability in our national security.

Many adversarial countries exploit this vulnerability and they have for decades- they sneak people into our country and they fly under the radar and we have no way of knowing who any of these people really are.

 

[acptulsa]

we We we we

Got a mouse in your pocket? Are you speaking on behalf of us, or about your own country?

You're singing we we we we and you're already all the way home halfway around the world. And not in Guam.

An asian bot doling out advice to Americans on how to keep our country liveable. That's asinine.

 

[nikcers]

Got a mouse in your pocket? Are you speaking on behalf of us, or about your own country?

You're singing we we we we and you're already all the way home halfway around the world. And not in Guam.

An asian bot doling out advice to Americans on how to keep our country liveable. That's asinine.

Im too tall and pale to be an asian person. I couldn't fake it even if I tried.

 

[acptulsa]

Im too tall and pale to be an asian person.

That's what all the Wii consoles say.

 

[69360]

So since something already is happening, accelerating it further doesn't matter? Did you feel that way about Biden's push to increase the size of the IRS?

W

'Ron Paul: Supersized IRS Will Shrink Liberty'

Aug 15, 2022

Supersized IRS Will Shrink Liberty

Ron Paul
August 15, 2022


West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin recently claimed the 15 percent corporate minimum tax contained in the Inflation Reduction Act, which should be called the Inflation Creation Act, is not a tax increase. Instead, he claimed, the bill simply closes a loophole that allows corporations to avoid paying all the taxes they owe. Despite what Senator Manchin says, the fact is the new minimum tax increases the amount of money some corporations must hand over to the government; in other words, it increases their taxes.

It is...

• WisconsinLiberty
• Replies: 3
• Forum: Ron Paul Forum

You don't get it. The government isn't accelerating, they are just admitting what they have already done.

I don't know what taxes have to do with this, but I don't pay them anymore.

 

[jmdrake]

You don't get it. The government isn't accelerating, they are just admitting what they have already done.

When the government admits what they've already done it means they're planning on doing even more.

I don't know what taxes have to do with this, but I don't pay them anymore.

Great! I hope it's all legal. I'm not saying that to be snarky. The purpose for the extra IRS agents was to go after people who don't pay taxes.