BREAKING: ICE to Monitor Americans' Social Media

[CentralMass]

https://share.newsbreak.com/fnzzioox

"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."

[Blue Owl]

1. As if there weren't already a myriad of reasons to ditch social media

[Hope22]

34. Do you consider this forum a form of social media?

Who is setting the rules?

[reACTIONary]

58. You are exactly right. It's like...

.... Social media is bad, except my social media.

[misanthrope]

2. Oh, this will end well.

"Nothing to worry about, Dr. Frankenstein."

[UpInArms]

3. This is completely fukked

I hate ai

[RandySF]

4. Porn, basketball and politics

Enjoy

[Zackzzzz]

55. You missed GAMBLING.

It's constant on TV.

[lostincalifornia]

5. Does that include DU?

[CentralMass]

8. I'm sure.

[erronis]

27. Agree. At this point assume all open conversations on all web sites are monitored.

And special scrutiny will be given to known left-leaning sites and to posts and posters who use terms considered "interesting".

[CrispyQ]

72. Is calling Donald Trump a piece of shit considered interesting?

Cuz millions of us are guilty of that.

[Volaris]

92. I was going to suggest, here ill go ahead and make it easy for them:

Fuck you Kristi, IM RIGHT HERE.

[gopiscrap]

103. couldn't have said it better

[Give Peace A Chance]

35. Sure. Why Not?

The internet is the TV hat watches you.
Be careful out there.

[IronLionZion]

47. I suspect they've been monitoring DU for a while already

[reACTIONary]

59. Of course. Why wouldn't it?

[jfz9580m]

100. Well the US is newer to this

An American acquaintance residing in China (his wife is Chinese) told me that surveillance state or not, it’s hard for the state even in China to keep up with the sheer volume of this crap.

I used to feel pretty self conscious about my own webuse prior to the last 14 years-never even had any social media. I did have a Facebook account for a few years, but that was strictly due to peer pressure. That was back when it was still .edu restricted. Never liked it.

I have a Substack account just to support this one journalist Yasha Levine, but I dislike Substack overall. Du is the only site I use without any ick.

I got an early warning about the emerging hyper-surveilled world in the works and oddly became more disinhibited and “crazier” in my posts initially.

Now, it’s oddly in the Trump era of all things that my brain’s default is slowly decaying back to my earlier headspace (which would probably be reflected in my posts over time).

I was always pretty self-conscious ..hate cameras. So I felt extra crazy when I first got wind of surveillance creep and was alarmed and unsettled by it.

Now that’s it’s officially this creepy, oddly I feel less singled out and am adapting better though still without caving on privacy or my rights etc..but now everyone is in the hell I was in ;-/..

Regardless, I think it’s hard to keep up witb the sheer volume of this crap and that sort of means you hide in plain sight..which is the best you can expect unfortunately.

I do what I can to protect my privacy (though one feels jaded at times). That’s part of what to fight.

My writing has really deteriorated though. . That is something I have to fix. It has been like that man’s “duckspeak” from 1984.
I have to start writing more slowly and carefully so I can stand to read what I write,

[reACTIONary]

105. Duck Speak is Double Plus Bad ....

.... Even though I have read 1984 and am familiar with newspeak, I had to look that one up.

From your post it seems you are writing very carefully. Down with duckspeak!

[nocoincidences]

6. DU participation

Is our participation here a form of "Social Media"?

It's the only social media I do!

[EarlG]

9. I've never considered DU to be "social media"

I'm not going to sugarcoat the appalling nature of what ICE is doing, but I will say that it is probably much less likely that they can scrape useful information from an old-school site like DU, where people are not required to give their real names, and can use a throwaway email address to create an account (and in any event, email addresses used to register an account on DU are never made public).

While there is a space in your DU profile to include information about yourself if you want, we've never encouraged people to provide anything that they don't feel comfortable sharing -- unlike the major social media services which basically beg you to give them as much information about yourself as they can possibly get a hold of. So the kind of massive information dragnet they're talking about in the OP is probably focused more on services like X, Facebook, Instagram, etc. where it is incredibly easy to collect all kinds of demographic information and stitch it together to create profiles on people.

[BeerBarrelPolka]

12. "What If"

They would subpoena you for star members identities?

[EarlG]

18. Hypothetically

If we received some kind of "dragnet subpoena" where the government simply demanded that we hand over everyone's personal information, my first move would be to get in touch with the ACLU, EFF, Public Citizen, and/or anyone else who might be willing to provide legal assistance to a private organization that is being illegally threatened by the government. At the end of the day though, scraping social media services is far easier and more efficient than going after sites like DU. I don't use social media personally, but if I did, I'd be more concerned about that than about posting on DU.

[BeerBarrelPolka]

19. Thank you

[RazorbackExpat]

94. Thank you

[dickthegrouch]

95. Plus which it would be hard for them to describe the persons or things

Full text of the fourth amendment is

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,[a] against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

I'm not an attorney but I read the highlighted part as needing to describe each of the things (userIDs) to be described (accurately) in any such subpoena. Since fishing expeditions have hitherto been discouraged, I think that would be difficult. A blanket "give us all your user names" would be too general and unenforceable IMHO.

[duhneece]

96. CREW got the founder of Cowboys for Trump Couy Griffin

…he’s now unable to run for any political office in the Country

[jfz9580m]

102. Thank you so much EarlG

FWIW DU is unambiguously on the right side of history on all that, as cold a comfort as that is these days.
That really cheered me up.

[Hugin]

21. For $5.7 million I am going to speculate that this deal is more hat than cattle...

Last edited Tue Oct 28, 2025, 06:20 PM - Edit history (1)

Considering the volume of traffic they are claiming to be able to process. It’s mostly a scam.

The danger here is that something will be manufactured using AI to incriminate someone that they have already decided to arrest after the fact. Like the photos of the non-existing tattoos on people’s fingers.

A digital throw-down and considering the people involved, it’s not much of a stretch.

[hadEnuf]

69. Anything that we think Trump and his fascists "would never do"

multiply that by 10 and expect them to do it. These monsters want it all. They have never had this much power and they are going insane with it.

[Hugin]

73. Absolutely.

They will do anything that they are allowed to do.

[DoBW]

22. thank you

[Attilatheblond]

40. Not worried about our screen names, but should we worry about our IP addresses ending up in their data files?

[Snarkoleptic]

52. I've been using a VPN for a couple of years and it works great.

If I want to watch youtube, I'll "move" to Mexico or Canada, which makes it easier for my ad blocking add-ons to work without any pushback.

I chose Express VPN as their servers are just pass-throughs w/ no RAM or other storage to hold onto data.

[Attilatheblond]

91. Thanks for that great tip!

[orangecrush]

51. Bluesky

Is probably more like what they'd be after

Makes no difference to me personally.

I survived Bush, I'll survive this bumbling assclown.

[underpants]

82. Going in record here that my name is Debbie

That’ll throw them off my trail.

❤️ Earl.

[jfz9580m]

107. I don't consider DU social media either

I was not aware of it, but if I am online, I like hanging out with quiet older people.

Btw thanks for allowing my rambling posts on DU EarlG.

I am one of your more annoying posters-not because of stuff I can control really. I try to keep a low profile online and offline and to lead a quiet life. But I keep getting into trouble.

I suspect that a moronic herd of “Fenn’s treasure” types, who fail to recognize reality, are a strain on everyone in this environment of poor data hygiene and needless security and safety theatre without the real thing.

Their heads are rotted by media spectacles. I sympathize with people struggling with brain rot and spectacles (being one myself). Not those who embrace it and thrive on it in chaos.

I have a necessary response to genuinely angering stuff. However, it doesn’t help that by now I have a feral animal’s reaction to routine stuff sometimes. It’s not a mental issue, but it can seem like one. I am sensitive to noise and routine construction work (which is already stuff I want pushed back) mingling with genuinely useless crap pissed me off. Hopefully, it’s over. This is not a good time to pursue unwanted, unsustainable overgrowth, let alone spectacular rot. The local morons should get that at least now.

This is a horrible time and I appreciate the difficulties of your work. I can’t believe it’s not even a year.

[erronis]

28. Yes. All interactions with websites are candidates for hoovering.

Don't think that a NextDoor or Amazon or Etsy or anything else is immune.

I'm sure all the major email providers (google, apple, etc.) are also fed into the maul of one of these data harvesters.

[calimary]

57. Yeah, me too.

This, and email and messaging from offspring, friends, and relatives.

[leftstreet]

7. You can't spell INCEL without ICE

Fuck off ICE

[DoBW]

10. related ...

found online a while back

I saw an infographic a couple years ago about how to remove source identifiers from links and why it's important, but I can't find it again and too many people I know are sending me links with them so here's an infographic straight from the oven

— Camp (@campfireharve.st) 2025-07-11T22:22:04.802Z

[yellow dahlia]

13. Thanks for the info.

[erronis]

32. There are other ways than the "query string" that the apps can monitor you.

It is good to remove these extra identifiers but many times they are also necessary to make the target site work.

More nefariously are some new "data-" add-ons in the HTML that don't show up when hovering over links.

Also, don't rely on "Incognito" mode in your browser. It does nothing to help with privacy in these situations. If you care, use a Tor browser or some other 99% anonymizing browsers/systems/networks. It's tough!

[littlemissmartypants]

75. Although it's imprecise, I refer to the string of source identifies as...

Tracking information as some don't speak programming. But it is technically accurate to use the source identifiers term, query string. It's confusing. But it's also expeditiously communicative.

It may be time for our own form of coded language. And I'm not talking about computer code.

[Captain Zero]

83. Remove the ?mark and everything after it

When forwarding links.

[Celerity]

93. I often post cleaned up links for other people's DU posts

and try to explain.

[yellow dahlia]

11. How many Constitutional rights does this violate?

[CentralMass]

14. As many as they can get away with.

[yellow dahlia]

16. That is the answer to everything right now - isn't it?

[littlemissmartypants]

76. "It's a criminal enterprise." Malcolm Nance

[yellow dahlia]

79. Malcolm Nance doesn't pull any punches.

[littlemissmartypants]

80. Precisely. ❤️

[reACTIONary]

64. Probably none. "ICE claims the program focuses on .....

'publicly available information'". Anyone can look at publicly available information, including LEO. If the information is public, there is no reasonable expectation of privacy.

So the constitution probably will not protect you. However, regular old laws, like the telecommunications act, can provide extra protection above and beyond constitutional protections. So there may be a law somewhere that this violates. And such a law could be enacted in the future.

[yellow dahlia]

77. Thanks.

If they use this information to "go after" people, won't this violate the Fourth Amendment? Unfair search and seizure, or some such thing?

[reACTIONary]

84. No. The fourth amendment applies to information for which.....

... there is a reasonable expectation of privacy. If you make information publicly available, you no longer have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Furthermore, the information does not have to be fully publicly disclosed. If you provide information to a friend or a business associate, and LEO asks them for it, they can turn it over. You have lost control.

This is why there are laws, like HIPA and the telecommunications act, that define privacy rights above and beyond what is provided by the constitution. Those laws can create a reasonable expectation of privacy for certain third party disclosures, like health information, or your telephone conversations.

[yellow dahlia]

86. Thanks for the explanations.

I couldn't have imagined that the dystopian literature and film I used to enjoy wouldn't remain fiction.

[republianmushroom]

15. More intrusion by America's Gestapo.

[cmmngrnd]

17. No problem - build bots

Build bots. Lots-n-lots-a-bots all chattering anti-Trump messages all day long. Let ICE chase ghosts.

And then more bots, but these all pose as MAGA with anti-Trump messages. Teach the AI to associate with MAGA with anti-Trump sentiment. Let ICE chase their own tails.

And what can real people do? Add messages at the ends of your real messages associating MAGA with anti-Trump sentiment. Teach that AI that MAGA is Trump's biggest threat. Heck, teach AI that ICE is a threat to Trump. Teach AI that Vance is plotting to overthrow the government. The varieties are numerous.

This is known as poisoning the data set. AI is only as good as it's data. If they're going to skim social media for data, give them something to skew the results. It's similar to when states set up hotlines to report some outrage du jour, and the hotlines get overwhelmed with fake calls.

Note: I'm not a bot creator, but people who have the expertise and capability to field large bot armies are probably aware of what they can do. Hopefully.

[pat_k]

20. It's worse than that: Deploying Predator and Pegasus (previously banned) to spy on people inside our borders.

Rachel Maddow explains that while much of Donald Trump's abuse of power is typical of authoritarians, Trump has a new tool that no authoritarian before him has had: extremely advanced spyware, including predator and pegasus. Trump is already deploying this new weapon through ICE, which intends to use this surveillance technology against immigrants but also against Americans who protest against ICE, and anyone they might snare with an extremely loose definition of "anti-fascist."

AI Summary

Predator spyware and the Intellexa alliance

Developers: Predator is sold by the Intellexa alliance, a complex network of companies that includes Cytrox, based in North Macedonia.
Capabilities: The software is highly invasive, with advanced obfuscation capabilities designed to evade detection. It can infiltrate devices, extract sensitive data, and even activate microphones and cameras without the user's knowledge.

Notable incidents:

Greek surveillance scandal: Predator was at the center of a scandal involving the wiretapping of journalists and opposition politicians in Greece in 2022.

Targeting US officials: U.S. government officials, including members of Congress, have been targeted with Predator spyware by foreign entities.

U.S. sanctions: In 2024, the U.S. government imposed sanctions on the Intellexa consortium and its leadership due to the threat their technology poses to national security.

Pegasus spyware and the NSO Group

Developers: Pegasus was created by the NSO Group, a private company headquartered in Israel.
Capabilities: It is capable of secretly infecting phones and extracting private information, including emails, texts, and photos, often without any sign of intrusion.

Notable incidents:

Global abuse: The software has been used by governments around the world to spy on human rights defenders, journalists, and political opponents.

Double infection: In a particularly notable case, the phone of an Egyptian dissident was found to be simultaneously infected with both the Pegasus and Predator spyware.

European Parliament investigation: The European Parliament launched a committee of inquiry to investigate the use of Pegasus and similar spyware.

[liberalgunwilltravel]

23. The death of social media

Would be the best thing that has happened in a long time.

[Attilatheblond]

42. Yes & no. It spreads propaganda fast, yes, but it is also a major tool for organizing against this fascist regime.

[Baitball Blogger]

24. Won't pass a court challenge.

[Irish_Dem]

30. So what? Trump will ignore court orders.

[Baitball Blogger]

33. From a court order to a civil lawsuit.

It will be a slow process, the first people they go after will get bloodied with the inconvenience, but in the end, this one is too egregious because he's going to target his political opponents.

[Irish_Dem]

36. He will claim national security issues and it is all classified.

[Baitball Blogger]

38. Except that lately, the judges are reaching the conclusion that the evidence and charges they produce

are fabricated. They are quickly losing credibility.

[Irish_Dem]

39. Yes but what can judges do to enforce their rulings?

[Baitball Blogger]

65. Civil charges. By individual name. In State court.

They can take the ice agents out financially, one by one. But first, they courts will have to establish that it is illegal.

[Irish_Dem]

67. Trump will find a way to work around this.

[Baitball Blogger]

71. The only work around is he had a donor who will pay for their damages.

But, if it becomes standard to sue and win, we might burn them out.

[Oneironaut]

25. ICE is going to be a general-use gestapo in a bit

Soon, immigration enforcement is going to be a small part of their job, compared to acting as government-funded thugs attacking dissidents.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

26. Yikes!

[BidenRocks]

29. "Can't stop the signal.." - Mr. Universe

The line "Can't stop the signal, Mal" is from the movie Serenity, a sequel to the show Firefly. In the film, the character Mr. Universe says this line to Captain Malcolm Reynolds, which refers to his ability to bypass the Alliance's interference to transmit a signal that reveals a horrific truth.

[Ilsa]

37. I wish Anonymous would hack

these m'fuckers.

Rachel talked about the new surveillance last night. They can hack cellphones, listen, download your data, contacts, pictures, etc, and your phone's security scans would never know.

Trump is turning us into a surveillance state. They have flown drones at No Kings protests, etc. I guess everyone on DU within the US is on an enemies list.

[azureblue]

41. do you think

Trump is making a private army out of this bunch of yoyos?
Could be..

[Cha]

60. Of course! nt

[taxi]

43. Also keep in mind that one of the most interesting activities to draw their attention is

trying to hide or disguise yourself. Hiding in plain sight draws less attention than running like a rabbit from bush to bush. (my own 2 cents)

[IcyPeas]

44. Will it search for words like..... Cheeto

Who remembers the definition of "santorum".

[maxrandb]

45. I see this as like those digital things that tell you how fast you are driving

Wonder if I can make it "tilt" like a pinball machine when you post the highest score.

Who's with me?

These thumbs were made for posting...and that's just what they'll do. One of these days these thumbs are gonna post all over ICE.

[Initech]

46. Fuck Zignal Labs!

[Cheezoholic]

48. I will be learning Mandarin over the winter n/t

[CanonRay]

49. I'm going to post Fuck Ice every day.

[orangecrush]

50. FUCK TRUMP FUCK ICE FUCK MILLER

Oh no!

I hope they don't see that!

[Johnny2X2X]

53. This is going to be really bad

Wait until your social security benefits stop arriving because of something you posted on Facebook.

[rzemanfl]

54. Monitor this you ICE motherfucking

Nazis.

[bluedigger]

56. Fuck ICE.

Keywords achieved.

[markodochartaigh]

61. Anyone who thinks that we are not already

under surveillance on a granular level is mistaken. Of course a big difference is the type of sociopaths doing the surveillance under the current regime.



https://www.wired.com/2012/03/ff-nsadatacenter/

[swong19104]

62. Sure they are

they're just going to access little girls' (and little boys') Facebook or TikTok or Instagram or whatever, checking for sexy poses and then contacting them for a "meet and greet".

Yeah, they don't have the intelligence to do a massive sweeping culling of people and their data. But, boy, do they love to see little Lolitas and Niños.

If local police were to set up some sting operation. 90% of the suspects will be ICE. The other 10% will be distributed among Republican politicians, pastors, religious camp counselors, and private high school gym teachers.

[2naSalit]

63. Well, let's see here...

We have Big Brother monitoring our lives; we have double-speak all over the place; innocent people hunted down and disappeared...

And that's just for starters.

[SunSeeker]

66. K & R for exposure

[Ping Tung]

68. Back to the future...

[AverageOldGuy]

70. Bring it on you sick muhthahfukahs

I’ve kept politics off my Facebook page but knowing they are monitoring me, I’ll go full-on anti-MAGAt as well as getting myself a BlueSky account, a Tik-Tok page, and anything else I can find.

[USS_Dauntless]

74. FUCK ICE! FUCK ICE! FUCK ICE! FUCK ICE! FUCK ICE! FUCK ICE! FUCK ICE!

FUCK ICE! FUCK ICE! FUCK ICE! FUCK ICE! FUCK ICE! FUCK ICE! FUCK ICE! FUCK ICE! FUCK ICE! FUCK ICE!

[littlemissmartypants]

78. 📌 Bookmark:ICE monitoring plans

[KentuckyWoman]

81. I assume they'll come for me eventually.

Yes it is "tin foil hattery" in any other world but legitimately, I fully expect at some point some government thugs will show up at my door to try and scare me into not posting my opinions on what MAGA is going. I'll do it anyway and will tell them to their faces.

I'll be among the last they come for.... so maybe nature will take me out before they get down to roughing up old white ladies in retirement communities in red states.

[Jack Valentino]

85. BIG BROTHER is Finally HERE, in its A.I. Omnipotence!

This thing is god-like in its reach...


"The agency has declined to disclose how the flagged data will be used in enforcement actions or shared with other departments."

but of course!

[TheFarseer]

87. And

If I post “Trump is a butthole”. ICE arrests me and sends me to Guatemala? What are we talking about here? Is this why Washington crossed the Delaware? So we could all live in a George Orwell novel?

[Jack Valentino]

88. If they can use the system for their ends, We can use it to monitor MAGAts!

George Soros, I call on you to fund the left's version of this system!

(Also should add monitoring of Airline Flight Reservations, for when the MAGAts attempt to flee the country!)

[Captain Zero]

89. What are some ways we could JAM IT

Add Bovino is a Pendejo randomly in stuff we write(?)
Bovino Pendejo.
Or start calling Homan 50K!$!

Just put shit like that in rverything

[CentralMass]

98. ...

[URL=/gif/i-put-that-shit-on-everything-yJ0lb5][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[subterranean]

90. We're becoming more like China and Russia every day.

Is America great again yet?

[LudwigPastorius]

97. Hey, look! It's the old Total Information Awareness program that was 'shut down'.

Turns out, it was just outsourced and privatized.

[xmas74]

99. They are welcome to read my DMs.

I'll be discussing my endometriosis, my IBS, the chocolate ovarian tumor I had and cookie recipes.

I will also use it as an opportunity to punish unsuspecting audiences with poorly written fan fiction about the Omegaverse and MPreg.

[C_U_L8R]

101. This is social media, right?

Hey Ice…. Bite me.

[bluestarone]

104. One good thing is we will all be finally able to meet each other.

[WmChris]

106. DARPA

I belive that's exactly what DARPA had in mind way back when. Let everybody just give us information rather than bothering with getting warrants or going undercover.