ICE Will Use AI to Surveil Social Media. Admins, this is not good, IMO.

[usonian]

Is it time to close DU to all but members? Sorry to sound paranoid.

Of course, there are archives who knows where.

Or do we just make a clause in the TOS:
"I am not a bot, nor do I share data with any corporation or government agency, under penalty of perjury (or whatever)"
And exclude Google. They are up to no damn good. I don't use Google except in dire circumstances.

https://jacobin.com/2025/10/ice-zignal-surveillance-social-media

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has inked a new $5.7 million contract for AI-driven social media surveillance software, according to federal procurement records reviewed by The Lever. It’s the latest move in the agency’s ongoing quest to build out a social media surveillance dragnet.

The five-year contract with government technology middleman Carahsoft Technology, made public in September, provides Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) licenses for a product called Zignal Labs, a social media monitoring platform used by the Israeli military and the Pentagon.

An informational pamphlet marked confidential but publicly available online advertises that Zignal Labs “leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning” to analyze over eight billion social media posts per day, providing “curated detection feeds” for its clients. The information, the company says, allows law enforcement to “detect and respond to threats with greater clarity and speed.”

The Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency, has in the past procured Zignal licenses for the US Secret Service, signing its first contract for the software in 2019. The company also has contracts with the Department of Defense and the Department of Transportation. But the September notice appears to be the first indication that ICE has access to the platform. The licenses will be provided to Homeland Security Investigations, ICE’s intelligence unit, to provide “real-time data analysis for criminal investigations,” per the disclosure.

Repeat, capabilities page:
https://www.carahsoft.com/news/zignal-labs-and-carahsoft-partner-to-deliver-next-generation-osint-platform-to-government-and-defense-agencies-2025

This article was first published by the Lever, an award-winning independent investigative newsroom.

[Blues Heron]

1. So much for land of the free home of the brave.

[Alice Kramden]

2. Good questions n/t

[highplainsdem]

3. I'd be very surprised if both the Trump admin and various rightwing groups didn't already have DU

as well as dKos archived. But so what?

Closing DU to all but members won't keep out spies who already are registered or will register.

But closing DU will cut off most ad revenue, make discussions here less effective because of very limited reach, and make gaining new members who are on our side less likely.

Look, there are millions of Democrats online who are posting at least occasional messages about Trump and ICE.

ICE can't arrest them all.

But they'd !ove it if those Democrats would confine their statements to private forums, or stop posting.

[Wednesdays]

4. This. nt

[usonian]

5. Good points.

I know that DU ranks high on search (DuckDuckGo, anyway. I imagine that Google is ridden with SEO garbage and AI garbage) but how far do things actually go (other than spy agencies?)

I posted an image that should have found its way "everywhere" Namely this one. (or two)





Went nowhere.

In my extremely not so humble opinion, worthy of magazine covers!!!!
(even if I lifted them off the internet and modified them up)

Well, I don't see the "reach", only preaching to the choir here, and that's also a big positive. Where else can you help motivate people so effectively (that live here).