As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continues conducting nationwide raids, the agency is simultaneously accelerating its efforts to broaden a sophisticated digital surveillance infrastructure capable of tracking the online movements of millions of internet users. Recently unearthed federal documents obtained by The Lever disclose that ICE has devoted approximately $5.7 million to access an artificial intelligence–driven system for social media monitoring known as Zignal Labs. This initiative has elicited serious criticism from civil liberties advocates, such as Will Owen, the communications director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP), who described the move as an alarming “assault” on both democratic principles and the freedom of speech.
According to information presented on Zignal Labs’ own website, the company’s so-called “real-time intelligence” platform has the capacity to absorb and process immense quantities of publicly available online data, particularly social media posts distributed across the globe. Supplementary materials reviewed by The Lever indicate that this system employs advanced algorithmic techniques—including machine learning, computer vision, and optical character recognition—to examine and categorize content at an astonishing scale of more than eight billion posts per day in over one hundred different languages. Such technological power enables the tool to structure information into what it calls “curated detection feeds,” a feature that grants ICE the capability to identify and monitor individuals, possibly marking them for further investigation or even deportation proceedings.
The documents emphasize Zignal’s technologically advanced ability to detect and analyze geolocated images and videos, subsequently providing real-time alerts and situational intelligence to field “operators.” One particularly illustrative example within the company’s materials notes that its software analyzed a video shared on the Telegram platform depicting an operation underway in Gaza, pinpointing its exact location. The system was reportedly able to identify insignias and symbols on uniforms to verify the groups involved, issuing notifications that informed relevant parties on-site. In a domestic context, these same mechanisms could empower ICE to trace a person’s geographical location based merely on details attached to a post on TikTok or an image uploaded to Facebook, raising profound concerns about the erosion of privacy in the digital era.
ICE secured its current contract with Zignal Labs through Carahsoft, a private firm well known for providing technology solutions to government agencies. Zignal Labs has previously strengthened its reputation in the federal sector through collaborative engagements, such as its partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where its analytic tools were used to assess weather-related events through social media data. Past agreements also link the company with the U.S. Secret Service, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Transportation, showing a growing network of governmental partnerships centered on expansive data analysis. Although The Verge reached out to Zignal Labs to request further clarification on its arrangement with ICE, the company reportedly did not respond promptly.
The use of massive surveillance tools targeting social media activity is not an unprecedented phenomenon. As early as 2016, investigations by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) exposed that local police departments had employed a CIA-supported digital intelligence tool called Geofeedia to monitor and track activists protesting police violence across platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Today, with the agency’s generous budget totaling in the billions of dollars, ICE is uniquely positioned to deploy a vast arsenal of monitoring software, each one capable of analyzing massive streams of user content—tools that critics fear could facilitate widespread arrests and deportations carried out with the aid of algorithmic intelligence.
Will Owen of STOP underscored the disturbing potential of this surveillance expansion, warning that the combination of ICE’s substantial funding and AI-enhanced tools signifies a possible escalation in state surveillance. He argued that with nearly limitless financial resources, ICE’s ventures into digital monitoring represent not just enhanced enforcement capabilities but also an existential challenge to civil rights. According to Owen, the agency operates with little accountability, willing to leverage advanced spyware to intimidate immigrant families and suppress the voices of activists who resist government overreach. This strategy, he emphasized, amounts to a direct, technology-enabled attack on democracy itself—one paid for by American taxpayers and sustained by opaque partnerships with private tech corporations. The immense scale of such monitoring, he adds, produces a correspondingly profound chilling effect, discouraging ordinary citizens from exercising free expression online.
Further deepening these concerns, a report published by Wired earlier this month revealed that ICE intends to hire close to thirty personnel responsible for reviewing digital content across major platforms—including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube—to identify individuals perceived as threats to national security or public safety. Internal contracting documents examined by Wired indicate that ICE is seeking specialized contractors equipped to obtain and analyze data that could include information not only on primary targets but also their extended networks of family, acquaintances, and colleagues, with the ultimate goal of determining precise locations for field operations. The same documents detail that approximately a dozen contractors would work from a monitoring facility in Vermont, while an additional sixteen would be posted in California, with some staff mandated to maintain round-the-clock availability.
David Greene, who serves as civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), expressed apprehension that such automated, AI-powered monitoring systems could give the government unprecedented capacity to scrutinize online discourse at a scale previously unimaginable through human observation alone. He warned that this form of surveillance would allow authorities to identify and potentially punish dissenting viewpoints with extraordinary efficiency. In Greene’s assessment, the scope of this government surveillance expansion parallels the equally vast psychological effects it could have on civic life—a broad-spectrum intimidation that discourages individuals from engaging freely in digital dialogue.
ICE’s surveillance reach already extends well beyond social media platforms. Reports from 404 Media show that the agency has gained access to sweeping troves of physical tracking information by tapping into extensive networks of license plate–recognition cameras and by leveraging mobile data tools that follow the movement of millions of cell phones. These actions form part of a wider federal surveillance agenda whose origins trace back to the Trump administration. For instance, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has proposed a plan requiring citizenship and residency applicants to disclose all personal social media handles, effectively linking immigration processes with continuous online scrutiny. In 2019, the State Department enforced similar measures, compelling visa applicants to list every social media account used during the previous year—a policy that has since expanded to cover a broader range of nonimmigrant visa applicants.
Under the same administration, government social media initiatives have begun to focus specifically on identifying online posts conflicting with official political narratives. One AI-based project, called “Catch and Revoke,” was introduced to detect and penalize perceived expressions of support for designated terrorist organizations among student visa holders. In a related move, the State Department recently announced the cancellation of six visas belonging to individuals accused of publicly celebrating the shooting of a right-wing commentator. Shortly thereafter, ICE conducted the arrest of nine street vendors in New York City’s Canal Street area, following an online tagging incident by a conservative influencer who flagged their presence to the agency—a striking illustration of how social media interactions can swiftly lead to real-world enforcement actions.
What is particularly troubling to critics is that with an advanced AI surveillance engine like Zignal Labs now integrated into ICE’s toolkit, the agency may no longer need public reports or influencer involvement to pinpoint targets for enforcement. The capacity to automatically collect and analyze data in real time could turn everyday online behavior—from comments to photographs—into actionable intelligence. As observers have noted, this evolution signals a fundamental shift in how freedom of expression functions within a digital society increasingly watched by both corporations and government entities.
Sacha Haworth, executive director of the Tech Oversight Project, reflected on the broader implications, arguing that this development exemplifies a disturbing alliance between major technology companies and an increasingly authoritarian federal government. In her view, the partnership reflects a continuation of policies that seek to systematically shrink the boundaries of public discourse under the guise of technological progress and national security. According to Haworth, such measures should deeply alarm citizens who value privacy, transparency, and open debate, since they indicate that data-gathering corporations are becoming silent enablers of political control. The fusion of corporate innovation and government authority in matters of mass surveillance, she warns, should not merely concern Americans—it should galvanize them to defend the principles of democracy itself.
For readers following developments in technology policy and civil liberties, these revelations about ICE’s expanding digital capabilities encapsulate one of the most critical questions of the modern age: how societies should balance the promises of artificial intelligence and data analytics against the imperatives of privacy, freedom, and human dignity in the online sphere.
Sourse: https://www.theverge.com/policy/806425/ice-social-media-surveillance-free-speech-assault
