ICE to Monitor Americans' Social Media
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"The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has signed a $5.7 million contract with Zignal Labs, an artificial-intelligence firm whose platform can scan and analyze billions of social-media posts each day.
Zignal Labs markets its system as capable of monitoring over 8 billion posts per day, in more than 100 languages, using machine learning, computer vision, and optical-character recognition to detect faces, text, locations, and patterns across platforms. The company also advertises “curated detection feeds” that can map relationships between users, identify emblems and symbols in images, and track how narratives spread online.
The contract was routed through Carahsoft Technology Corporation, a federal IT reseller that allows agencies to obtain surveillance software with limited public bidding or debate. Reporting from Jacobin, Wired, and The Washington Post confirms that ICE plans to operate a 24/7 social-media monitoring center, connecting Zignal’s data to its existing network of phone-location tools, facial-recognition systems, and biometric databases.
This scale of automated monitoring risks creating a mass digital dragnet. The platform’s reach far exceeds previous government tools, allowing ICE to monitor not only immigrants under investigation but potentially anyone discussing politics, protests, or immigration online.
A federal agent stands outdoors wearing a green and tan baseball cap, dark sunglasses, a gray neck gaiter covering his mouth and nose, black tactical vest labeled POLICE and FEDERAL AGENT, black shirt, and black pants with gear including a radio and pouch.
While ICE claims the program focuses on “publicly available information,” there is no published policy outlining limits, data-retention periods, or human-review safeguards. The agency has declined to disclose how the flagged data will be used in enforcement actions or shared with other departments.
This development represents a significant expansion of domestic surveillance capabilities inside the United States. With no clear oversight, it blurs the line between law-enforcement intelligence and mass social-media monitoring of ordinary Americans." |
