The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation file a lawsuit in the Northern District of California against the federal government on Thursday over its societal spiritualist surveillance practice , specifically relating to the Trump administration ’s controversial in-migration insurance known as “ extreme vetting . ”
The lawsuit filed under the Freedom of Information Act accuses seven federal agencies — including the Justice Department , several immigration federal agency , and the FBI — of failing to produce selective information about their social medium monitoring tools and recitation in response to an FOIA request for that entropy by the ACLU in 2018 .
“ Multiple agencies are take steps to monitor societal media drug user and their speech , activities , and association , ” thelawsuitstates . “ harmonize to publicly useable entropy , Defendants are investing in technology and systems that activate the programmatic and sustained trailing of U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike . They also have ramp up the monitoring and keeping of immigrant ’ and visa applicants ’ social media info , including for the purpose of conducting what the Trump governing has called ‘ utmost vetting ’ or ‘ visa lifecycle stage setting . ’ ”
This practice of both automate and manual vetting , the causa says , “ raises serious free speech and concealment concern . ” The suit states it also disproportionately bear upon minority group as well as those critical of the U.S. government , such as both domestic and foreignactivists . The ACLU’sFOIA requestin May of last year specifically noted that societal media screening method used by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services “ miss protections against discrimination and profiling and buckle under few actionable result , ” cite home review .
In ablog postco - bylined by ACLU attorney Hugh Handeyside and Matt Cagle about the organization ’s decision to file the causa , they pointed to publically useable info about the governing ’s objectives for monitoring user on social media as evidence that it “ routinely tracks domestic social media user , ” and specifically immigrants .
While little is known about specifically how these government bureau are get over people on societal media , the authors highlighted key go-ahead such as an intended contract with Dataminr and a previous contract bridge with Pen - Link , as well as a proposal by the State Department that would require millions of annual visa applier to hand over theirsocial media usernamesacross platforms going back years .
“ The public has a right wing to know how the Union government monitors social media substance abuser and spoken language , whether agency are retain societal medium content , and whether the authorities is using surveillance products to label activists and mass of colouration as threats to public safety base on their First Amendment - protect conduct , ” Handeyside , a senior staff attorney with the ACLU ’s National Security Project , said in a statement .
[ ACLUviaSan Francisco Chronicle ]
societal media
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