US Postal Inspection Service covertly monitors justice protestors

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USP IS) ran a secret AI-powered programme tracking social media users, including racial justice protestors, prompting concerns about civil liberties and the programme's legality. What happened From at least 2018, the USPIS operated the Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP), which monitored social media for posts about protests in the US and abroad. Analysts collected posts from platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Parler, Telegram and others using a number of automated data collection and analytics tools, including Clearview AI's facial recognition system. Focusing on events including Black Lives Matter protests, pro-gun rallies, anti-lockdown demonstrations, and post‑election right‑wing marches, the programme generated “situational awareness” bulletins that were circulated to other law‑enforcement bodies through Department of Homeland Security fusion centers, sometimes including screenshots and usernames of individuals. People whose posts were swept up could face further law‑enforcement scrutiny or chilling effects on their willingness to protest, even where there was no evidence of postal‑related crime or credible threat. Why it happened USPIS justified iCOP as a way to assess threats to postal employees, infrastructure and operations by monitoring publicly available online information for possible violence near protests. In practice, the programme conducted broad keyword searches (for terms like “protest,” “attack,” and “destroy”) that were not limited to postal‑related threats, exceeding its mandate to investigate crimes involving the mail, according to the USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG). The OIG later found that certain proactive social media searches between 2018 and 2021 were “not legally authorized” and that USPS could not show they had proper justification or legal approvals. Limited external transparency, notably secret criteria, unclear legal basis, and vague internal oversight, allowed the programme to run for years before media reporting, FOIA requests, and congressional interest forced public scrutiny. What it means For directly affected individuals and movements, being covertly catalogued in federal surveillance bulletins simply for planning or discussing protests risks stigmatisation, further monitoring, or information‑sharing with other agencies, even where no crime is alleged. More broadly, knowing that a non‑intelligence agency like the postal service is scanning protest speech can chill lawful dissent and online organising, undermining trust in government services and law enforcement. For policymakers, the incident highlights gaps in statutory limits and oversight on how “ordinary” federal agencies can use open‑source intelligence tools, facial recognition, and bulk social‑media monitoring. It underlines the need for clearer rules on mission creep, proportionality, and transparency whenever government entities monitor protest‑related speech, even when using publicly visible data.

Date it happened

2021-01-01

Organisation involved

US Postal Inspection Service (USP IS)

Product, system or model

Clearview AI; Zignal Labs

This is a record of what was reported, not a finding that anyone broke the law. If it names your organisation and you believe it is wrong, the corrections process is free and open to everyone.