Digital Event Horizon
ICE's new social media monitoring program aims to hire nearly 30 contractors to scour platforms for potential targets for deportation raids and arrests. The program raises concerns about the potential for abuse and erosion of civil liberties, with similar alarms raised by other surveillance contracts in the past. As the agency seeks to expand its reach into the digital world, questions remain about how it will balance the need for effective enforcement with the need to protect individual rights.
ICE plans to hire 30 contractors to monitor social media platforms for potential targets. The program will use subscription-based surveillance software to analyze open-source intelligence from various platforms. Analysts will have access to powerful commercial databases, including LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters CLEAR. ICE is seeking algorithms that can integrate artificial intelligence into the hunt. The program raises concerns about potential abuse and erosion of civil liberties.
In a concerning development, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is planning to hire nearly 30 contractors to scour social media platforms for potential targets for deportation raids and arrests. The program, which is still in the request-for-information stage, aims to station private analysts at two of ICE's targeting centers in Vermont and Southern California, 24/7, to process cases on tight deadlines.
The plan, as outlined by draft planning documents, envisions a multiyear surveillance program that will utilize subscription-based surveillance software to analyze open-source intelligence from Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms. Analysts are expected to collect information on public posts, photos, and messages, as well as check more obscure or foreign-based sites, such as Russia's VKontakte.
The contractors will also be armed with powerful commercial databases, including LexisNexis Accurint and Thomson Reuters CLEAR, which knit together property records, phone bills, utilities, vehicle registrations, and other personal details into searchable files. The plan calls for strict turnaround times, with urgent cases requiring research within 30 minutes and lower-priority leads completed within the workday.
Furthermore, ICE is seeking algorithms that can weave artificial intelligence into the hunt, mirroring recent proposals made by other government agencies. The agency has also set aside more than a million dollars a year to arm analysts with the latest surveillance tools.
The expansion of ICE's social media monitoring program raises concerns about the potential for abuse and erosion of civil liberties. Past experience shows that guardrails can be flimsy, honored more in paperwork than in practice. Other surveillance contracts have raised similar alarms, including the use of Israeli spyware company Graphite to remotely hack messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center has sued ICE, calling its reliance on data brokers a "significant threat to privacy and liberty." The American Civil Liberties Union has argued that buying bulk datasets helps ICE sidestep warrant requirements and pull in vast amounts of data with no clear link to its enforcement mandate.
In September 2024, ICE signed a $2 million contract with Paragon, an Israeli spyware company whose flagship product 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.
The newly proposed social media program is only the latest in a string of surveillance contracts ICE has pursued over the past few years. This story originally appeared at WIRED.com and was published on October 4, 2025.
Related Information:
https://www.digitaleventhorizon.com/articles/The-Surveillance-State-Expands-ICEs-New-Social-Media-Monitoring-Program-deh.shtml
https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/10/ice-wants-to-build-a-24-7-social-media-surveillance-team/
Published: Sat Oct 4 10:09:02 2025 by llama3.2 3B Q4_K_M
