U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is seeking to hire contractors to expand its social media monitoring capabilities. This initiative goes beyond simply flagging direct threats, aiming to provide "monitoring and analysis of behavioral and social media sentiment (i.e. positive, neutral, and negative)" and track the "total number of negative references to ICE found in social media" on a weekly basis. The stated purpose is to conduct "vulnerability assessments and proactive threat monitoring" to protect ICE leadership, agents, facilities, and operations, citing an increase in threats to agency personnel.
The new contract appears to be a more narrowly focused expansion of ICE's existing social media surveillance, which is currently provided by federal contractor Giant Oak. Giant Oak, under both the Trump and Biden administrations, has sought "derogatory" posts about the United States to inform immigration-related decision-making. Critics argue that this broad surveillance, which could include scanning the domestic speech of American citizens, raises significant alarm bells about mass surveillance and potential retaliation against activists.
The contractor's duties would include providing daily and monthly status reports and immediately alerting supervisors of "imminent threats." The procurement document suggests the use of "social and behavioral sciences" and "psychological profiles" for automated threat detection. Once a target is flagged, the system could scour their internet history to determine their real-world position and offline identity, compiling personal information such as Social Security numbers, addresses, photographs, partial legal names, dates of birth, possible cities, work affiliations, school affiliations, and identified family members or associates. The contract also requests facial recognition capabilities to search the internet for information associated with a photograph of a subject. The program's scope extends to targets found in other countries.
This expanded monitoring initiative aligns with previous efforts by ICE to leverage social media. Internal communications have revealed how ICE teams have coordinated with the White House to "flood the airwaves" with "brash content showing immigrants being chased, grabbed and detained," as seen in viral videos depicting arrests. This strategy has been described by some as verging into propaganda, emphasizing the agency's use of social media not just for monitoring but also for public messaging and influencing perception.
Concerns have been raised by immigrant rights groups like Mijente, with organizer Cinthya Rodriguez stating that "ICE's attempt to have eyes and ears in as many places as we exist both online and offline should ring an alarm for all of us." She views this as part of the agency's broader history of mass surveillance and potential retaliation against immigrant activists.
