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IS THE GOVERNMENT TRACKING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVITY?


Suspicionless monitoring of social media accounts chills speech and threatens
our right to live without fear of constant government scrutiny.

Shaiba Rather,
Nadine Strossen Fellow, ACLU
Layla Al,
Paralegal,
ACLU’s National Security Project
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April 24, 2023

The Biden administration has been quietly deploying and expanding programs that
surveil what people say on social media, using tools that allow agents and
analysts to invisibly monitor the vast amount of protected speech that occurs
online. For years, these kinds of tools have been increasingly used for a range
of controversial law enforcement and intelligence purposes. But some of the most
troubling programs continuously monitor the social media posts of non-citizens
to decide who gets to live, study, or stay in the United States.

If you’re an immigrant or visa-holder in the United States and believe you’ve
been affected by this social media monitoring, the ACLU wants to hear your
story.

American Civil Liberties Union
Social Media Surveillance of Visa Holders and Immigrants in the U.S.
The ACLU wants to hear from people in the US who may be impacted by the
Department of Homeland Security’s monitoring of social media activity.

Social media accounts are extensions of ourselves. A single social media account
can reveal a map of our family and friends; a catalogue of our personal
preferences and political views; and, of course, a comprehensive diary of our
thoughts and speech. Given the trove of information available online, social
media surveillance threatens our rights to speak freely and live without fear of
constant government scrutiny.

Through our ongoing FOIA lawsuit, the ACLU has obtained documents showing that a
wide range of government agencies are monitoring and retaining the speech of
U.S. citizens and non-citizens alike — whether or not those individuals are
suspected of any criminal wrongdoing. Agencies continue to pour millions of
dollars into technology that enables this sustained tracking of social media
activity.


American Civil Liberties Union
ACLU v. DOJ: FOIA Lawsuit Seeking Information on Federal Agencies’ Surveillance
of Social Media | American Civil Liberties Union
Federal agencies are investing in technology and systems that enable the
tracking of social media information on U.S. citizens and non-citizens alike.

In recent years, the government has ramped up its efforts to monitor the social
media activities of non-citizens. At least two Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) programs involve the monitoring of non-citizens who have come to the U.S.
for school, work, or other reasons. Under the Visa Lifecycle Vetting Program,
DHS monitors the online activities of individuals in the U.S. on student or
business visas — from the moment they apply for a visa throughout their stay in
the United States. Under another program known as Continuous Immigration
Vetting, DHS may monitor social media and a number of other sources for
“derogatory information” about non-citizens, starting when a person applies for
an immigration benefit until they become a naturalized U.S. citizen.


WHO SOCIAL MEDIA SURVEILLANCE HURTS

The government’s social media surveillance can have immense consequences. For
example, in August 2019, CBP officers denied entry to Ismail Ajjawi, a
17-year-old Palestinian student from Lebanon traveling to start his freshman
year at Harvard. Ismail, like other non-citizens hoping to enter the United
States, was likely subject to the State Department’s policy requiring nearly all
visa applicants to disclose their social media handles. After an hours-long
interrogation about Ismail’s political views, religious affiliations, and
friends’ social media posts, Ismail’s visa was canceled and he was promptly
deported.

While Ismail was eventually allowed to pursue his studies in the U.S., the
government continues to engage in the suspicionless social media monitoring of
non-citizens, including many Black and Brown immigrants and visitors who want to
become citizens or pursue degrees here. Once DHS collects this information, it
may use it to guide immigration decisions, including those involving
deportation, visa revocations, and naturalization.

Suspicionless monitoring of social media infringes the rights of people who are
living in the U.S. and are protected by the First Amendment. Individuals who
suspect they are being surveilled may fear expressing themselves freely out of
concerns over government scrutiny or retaliation. This is a loss for the people
whose speech is chilled and for all those who benefit from vibrant online
conversations and exchanges of ideas.

Government surveillance also often disproportionally targets racial and
religious minority communities and those who dissent against government
policies. The ACLU has called on both DHS and the Justice Department to reform
their policies that allow biased profiling and investigations. And of course,
surveillance undermines our basic notions of privacy. Even individuals who post
publicly online do not expect the government to digitally archive their online
activity without any suspicion, or to scrutinize their friends, contacts, and
associations on social media platforms.


SOCIAL MEDIA SURVEILLANCE IS INEFFECTIVE AND INEFFICIENT

Social media surveillance is also ineffective and lacks empirical support.
Analyzing social media is notoriously difficult, given the sheer volume of
information and the many ways in which individuals’ online messages can be
misinterpreted — especially when those posts span many different languages and
cultures. One office within DHS recently rejected a proposal to expand the
agency’s collection of social media information after concluding that the
monitoring had little utility. The Biden administration has also reportedly
considered halting social media vetting for some categories of refugees given
concerns about “the efficiency of the process.”

Given the harms of this surveillance, and its demonstrated lack of
effectiveness, DHS should end its existing social media programs. Until then, we
need to know more about how the government monitors our social media and the
impact of this surveillance on communities and individuals.

If you think you are or have been affected by this surveillance, we want to hear
from you. Please fill out this form or email us directly at sms_intake@aclu.org.
The ACLU will keep strictly confidential any information you provide and will
not share it outside the ACLU without your permission.

End discriminatory profiling by the government


WHAT YOU CAN DO

End discriminatory profiling by the government

Send your message


End discriminatory profiling by the government

Send your message



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