When it can be assumed that you are being surveilled while expressing negative opinion about the federal government, it’s probably best to go ahead and make the assumption, particularly during the punitive heights of the second Donald Trump administration. New reporting from the Associated Press this weekend detailed some aspects of not only United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) latest anti-immigrant and deportation campaign in New Orleans, but also some interesting insights into how both the federal and state law enforcement agencies involved have been engaged in online surveillance campaigns to track public sentiment toward that crackdown. The story paints a chilling profile of a United States in which dissent against the regime’s campaign of immigrant-targeted cruelty is being carefully compiled, filed away for the potential of future use against American citizens. Not that any of this should be a surprise for any of us.
We have, after all, been warned over and over that organizations like ICE have been wanting to vastly expand their online operations, using the same vastly expanded budget that recently saw them purchase a new $7.3 million fleet of (Canadian made) armored vehicles. The online expansion of ICE, meanwhile, is not just in the name of locating more groups of undocumented immigrants to target, but also to compile sprawling digital enemies lists, creating databases of those who have expressed anti-ICE sentiment. Earlier this year, The Intercept wrote about surveillance contractors sought by ICE, who would be expected to perform algorithm- and AI-aided deep dives into social media users’ post histories, searching for, among other things, “proclivity for violence,” which could include “empathy with a group which has violent tendencies,” among other things. Hope you haven’t expressed “empathy” at any point for any group with “violent tendencies,” right? How does it feel to know that you’d be at the mercy of a freelance surveillance contractor’s mastery of “social and behavioral sciences” and “psychological profiles,” according to ICE’s statement of objectives?
How much of these draconian operations have already been implemented isn’t entirely clear thanks to the shroud of secrecy surrounding the DHS and ICE, but fresh reporting in October noted that ICE was in the process of seeking an additional 30 full-time surveillance contractors to staff two of its “targeting centers”–and yes, that is apparently the official, deeply dystopian term for these facilities. These facilities, in Williston, VT and Santa Ana, CA, would run 24/7 shifts as surveillance analysts “receive tips and incoming cases, research individuals online, and package the results into dossiers that could be used by field offices to plan arrests.” The obvious question: How long until the same resources are being used to target those critical of ICE, or those organizing to impede ICE crackdown efforts, under the guise of “interference with law enforcement operations”? It should also be noted that even if ICE isn’t directly targeting those individuals yet, the unspoken threat of this kind of online surveillance could be intended to have a chilling effect on anti-ICE criticism.
103 Comments
db2@lemmy.world · 99 pts · 256d
The only good Nazi is a dead Nazi.
Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone · 94 pts · 256d
ICE can watch this: 🫱(‿¤‿)🫲
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world · 54 pts · 256d
I'm not ICE, but in my state you need digital ID verification for that.
BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 256d
Clearly an emoticon/emoji of Iron Man's chest.
modular950@lemmy.zip · 18 pts · 256d
oh! how neat! I wasn't putting together what it was supposed to be. I've gotta send this to my kiddo, he loves iron man!
fartographer@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 256d
He'll love it! Ironman is the GOAT, see!
modular950@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 256d
slow clap
jesus...
TachyonTele@piefed.social · 9 pts · 256d
In my state we just need a jpg DMed to me
demonsword@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 256d
wow, a rare goatse emoji out here on the wild
mycodesucks@lemmy.world · 66 pts · 256d
Oh, I'm sorry... I might be too quiet.
Krono@lemmy.today · 51 pts · 256d
Well there's a good chance I'll die in a Trump concentration camp, so might as well make the best of it.
Shoot to kill any intruders that invade your home without a warrant.
If ICE Gestapo thugs invade your home without a warrant, be a hero. Exercise your second amendment right.
Headofthebored@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 256d
Even if you end up being killed take at least one of the henchmen with you. Make them aware that they must choose which of their colleagues is going in first and not going home to their family. If you don't get the due process the constitution guarantees, one of them will eat lead.
SabinStargem@lemmy.today · 13 pts · 256d
This is pretty much my posture regarding ICE and the Trump Regime. If I am destined for one of RFK's plantations, I intend to kill any ICE bastard who comes for me.
More importantly, if this cold war goes hot, I will engage with ICE bastards in warfare. I am simply waiting for the Blue States Military to give the order to assemble and uphold the spirit of the Constitution.
regedit@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 255d
I got IT skills and ADHD and I thrive in high stress situations. If I can't take one out myself, I'll make sure my house never lets any of them leave as well!
tidderuuf@lemmy.world · 45 pts · 256d
If ICE wants to crack down on people's 1A rights then they may quickly be finding issues with the 2A folks.
Well, in some states anyways.
Kyrgizion@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 256d
The 2A folks are overwhelmingly on the side of the oppressors...
Coyote_sly@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 256d
Then it may be time to go shopping while you still can.
halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 256d
Not really... According to Pew Research Approximately 45% of Republicans report owning a gun, compared to about 20% of Democrats. Considering the parties are often roughly equally sized when it comes to these statistical models, that's not actually a massive difference. There are plenty of armed Democrats, they're just not vocal about wanting to worship their tools.
Filetternavn@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 256d
By your own statistics, and assuming we're discounting independents, Republicans have over twice the gun owners than democrats, putting them over 2/3 of American gun owners. Of course, that's assuming they are actually "roughly equally sized". I'd say over double is in fact a massive difference.
You're right, however, that Democratic gun owners tend to he less vocal about the second amendment. There are plenty of Democrats that own 1 or 2 small firearms for self defense that support heavier gun restrictions, for instance.
BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 256d
ICE recently lured someone out of their house by claiming to be a construction worker (dressed up I'm guessing) that hit a parked car. 😮💨
DFX4509B@lemmy.wtf · 5 pts · 256d
kbobabob@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 256d
Cops seem to be justified in shooting and killing people that just show a gun in their own house after they break down the wrong door(or the right one). 2A rights don't really exist either.
willington@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 256d
Rights always exist. They come from God or Nature. Our fellow men either respect or ignore those rights. But even ignoring a right or disrespecting it doesn't make the right just vanish.
It is not our fellows who give us rights. Nor can our fellows take them away.
richieadler@lemmy.myserv.one · 0 pts · 254d
Bullshit. Gods aren't real and nature gives nothing.
willington@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 254d
Rights as a concept I described correctly.
I have my interests and my dignity. I prosecute my interests. Where did I get all that from? Interests and dignity, what is that if not another way to describe rights? The fact that I will prosecute and defend those regardless of your opinion, what is that? Rights again.
When we say Nature "gives" we don't mean it transfers something to us. It's just a way of saying we have some qualities or properties as beings by way of simply us being what we are. In this case "gives" is not literal.
As for Gods not being real, I won't bother arguing for God being real in the interests of time. I purposely included Nature as an alternative to God.
richieadler@lemmy.myserv.one · 0 pts · 254d
If you live in a dictatorship, those rights don't exist. The rights are earned or agreed upon by a collective. They don't pre-exist. In an universe without sentient beings, the notion of "rights" is nonsense.
willington@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 0 pts · 254d
Any universe has at least one sentient being.
Rights aren't circumstantial. How people are treated IS circumstantial. Rights as a concept is not about outcomes. Rights is what is rightly DUE. Rights get violated all the time. That means we tresspass on the minimums that are due. Someone is due privacy, but we spy/surveil them instead. Rights are worth defending. Without defending, rights will get violated. Whether we defend rights or not, they exist as defined. Anyone can just start defending rights at any time, and it doesn't mean you're building rights at that time.
It's like counting. Whether you count or not, number 3 exists as a distinct meaning. Rights are like that. Rights exist and have meaning. You can even live a million lifetimes and not know a damn thing about rights in all that time, and this would not negate rights any more than if even every sentient being stopped counting and forgot counting negated numerical concepts. Counting concepts exist, are real, are ever available, and their use can be resumed at any time.
blitzen@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 256d
Surely you mean 2A?
tidderuuf@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 256d
Ya 2A. No idea why my phone used autocorrect of 5A earlier.
0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 256d
Day #82924 of 2A folks claiming to defend anything
explodicle@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 256d
What do you mean, they already shot Trump's ear and Kirk's neck.
Psythik@lemmy.world · 42 pts · 256d
I doubt ICE is even aware of Lemmy's existence. They're more likely spending their resources on the major normie platforms like Instagram and Twitter.
Either way, they can swallow my dick & balls and lick my whole asshole clean.
NutWrench@lemmy.world · 38 pts · 256d
Hey ICE:
Sunflier@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 256d
Wish I could up-vote this twice.
muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 254d
You can. Create another account. Inflate those numbers!
space@reddthat.com · 36 pts · 256d
This is exactly why I have been very vocal about my disapproval. The more people they have to watch the less effectively they can do it.
Insekticus@aussie.zone · 10 pts · 256d
That's it. Do whatever you can to waste their resources. Make them bleed for every inch.
drdalek@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 35 pts · 256d
Fuck ICE, Fuck Meta, Fuck Flock, Fuck this 1984 bullshit
AcidiclyBasicGlitch@sh.itjust.works · 32 pts · 256d
How fucking creepy is it to think about this psychological manipulation pre-crime bullshit and take into account that one of the briefings released yesterday took note of people in New Orleans seeming especially disturbed by videos with the sound of crying children.
Officials track public sentiment, noting negative impact of ‘videos with sounds of children crying’ as parents arrested
It seems very unlikely this is being noted in order to answer questions like "How do we tone it down a bit and keep things from boiling over?"
Imo (and obviously feel free to take that with a grain of salt since I'm totally "overly-paranoid" about how evil these people are and the levels they would stoop to) it seems more likely this is to answer a question of "How do we use psychological warfare against the American people and send them closer to their breaking point?"
nymnympseudonym@piefed.social · 10 pts · 256d
And they wonder why darknet forums like Dread exist
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world · 28 pts · 256d
Oh yeah?
Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 256d
W3dd1e@lemmy.zip · 25 pts · 256d
Good. I want them to know. I want everyone to know that ICE is a bunch of limp dick nazis.
0ndead@infosec.pub · 24 pts · 256d
ICE & CBP are traitors to this country
finalarbiter@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 22 pts · 256d
Good. There should be no confusion when we go for their fucking heads.
Oyml77@lemmy.today · 18 pts · 256d
Trump for Guillotine! Lop Him Up! Lop Him Up! Lop Him Up!
DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 19 pts · 256d
Fuck Ice
TommySoda@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 256d
My guess is that they don't quite have the resources to do anything about it but are more than happy to let everyone know they are doing it to scare people. We've already seen how abysmal their ICE recruitment numbers have been and I highly doubt they'd be able to do anything against more than 50% of the entire population with what they currently have.
Obligatory Fuck ICE
floofloof@lemmy.ca · 9 pts · 256d
They're still preparing, gathering names for the day when they have enough force:
https://truthout.org/video/journalist-reveals-fbi-is-offering-a-bounty-for-reporting-anti-trump-thought/
FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io · 9 pts · 256d
Better not submit nonsense reports.
postmateDumbass@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 256d
Someone needs to document the ICE payroll for any future corrections.
Iheartcheese@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 256d
prex@aussie.zone · 7 pts · 256d
I mean, that is going to happen.
lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com · 3 pts · 256d
Everyone eventually dies.
Nima@leminal.space · 16 pts · 256d
ICE can go fuck themselves with a rusty rake 💕🫰😘
twice 😊
curbstickle@anarchist.nexus · 6 pts · 256d
I'd prefer the first time that they finish, with a lasting stillness after. No need for a second round.
rayyy@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 256d
For the ICE folks it's all fun and ghoul games now but the tide will change and they will not like it.
BigBenis@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 256d
Big Brother can suck my dick.
SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 256d
Lmao yeah come to my house about internet posts and see what happens
Please waste resources on me :3
baggachipz@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 256d
Yeah, come get me, motherfuckers.
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 10 pts · 256d
Big Brother and ICE can ligma nuts.
village604@adultswim.fan · 9 pts · 256d
I mean, the NSA data centers have been doing this for ages now.
TachyonTele@piefed.social · 4 pts · 256d
I think we've been learning recently that no, the agencies have not been doing this. Now that the actual conspiracy nuts are in charge they are doing what they always accused the state of doing.
FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io · 9 pts · 256d
Have we? There have been articles about this in widely known publications like USA Today since 2006!
I thought back then, "Well surely people won't stand for this!"
Here we are though...
TachyonTele@piefed.social · -5 pts · 256d
No way! I say they've been in articles since 1826!
FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io · 6 pts · 256d
Not sure if you're attempting to be funny here but feel free to start here if you doubt me https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/09/13/nsa-secretly-collecting-americans-phone-call-records/7940563001/
Places have been reporting on this for over 20 years and not much has changed. Glad more people are finding out, but frankly, I doubt anything will really change in a substantive way.
TachyonTele@piefed.social · -5 pts · 256d
Don't take everything so seriously.
explodicle@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 256d
Just a third party observation. It looked like you were trying to make a serious point. Then the other guy disagreed, so you made a joke to imply how his point was either wrong or irrelevant or something. So then he provided the source.
So it looks like his disagreement was valid, and you're using the "lol I was just joking bro" defense. But it doesn't even work as a joke if you're just being sarcastic and wrong.
_cryptagion@anarchist.nexus · 4 pts · 256d
village604@adultswim.fan · 4 pts · 256d
I think it's more that the morons in charge aren't trying to hide it anymore. The federal government isn't going to spend billions capturing all Internet traffic in the country and not use it for 20 years.
AcidiclyBasicGlitch@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 256d
With the added bonus of keeping track of the public response to videos of children crying when being separated from their parents?
And using AI to build psychological profiles in order to continue to target them with a tailored algorithm?
village604@adultswim.fan · 2 pts · 256d
That sounds more like the CIA, but I'm sure they share data.
AcidiclyBasicGlitch@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 256d
Yeah at this point, I am more than confident that it's pretty safe to just lump every loyalist still following orders being given from the war criminals (who are the face of being) in charge of the government under the shared title of secret police.
If the CIA and plenty of other powerful conservatives didn't want Trump to be doing the things he's doing, he wouldn't be sitting in the fucking white house right now taking a shit on the constitution.
Passerby6497@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 256d
I cannot wait for this regime and it's Toadies to meet up with the modern John C Woods
muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 254d
So…what?
Seriously, do they expect us to just be nice to ICE? Like if we ignore everything they will leave us alone? We’ve seen this before. We know how this ends. They are coming for all of us either way. So where is the incentive to be civil to ICE?
These people are mentally ill if they think they can threaten their way to credibility and respect.
AcidiclyBasicGlitch@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 254d
Yes and I don't say this as a knock on mental illness. I say it because many conservatives are raised to believe that mental illness is either a supernatural force of the devil or a moral failing. I sincerely believe that if many conservatives would just give therapy a trial run, and try to unpack half the shit that they instead insist on holding on to then unleashing upon society, the world would be a much more pleasant and peaceful place.
However, most will never do that because not going to therapy A. proves they're totally not crazy otherwise they'd be in therapy, right? and B. Trying to control everyone else, provides them with their own sense of control.
kokesh@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 256d
Really? Ok! Fuck you tRump!
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 256d
eat shit and go to hell.
AcidiclyBasicGlitch@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 256d
You suck Motherfucker. I hate "White Power" I hate your band. Can't you see This ain't Nazi Germany
supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 256d
Fuck ICE
Jumbie@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 256d
We keep allowing The Dotard Regime to weaken us and our enemies are picking their moment.
Our country is in danger from enemies domestic and foreign.
chilldrivenspade@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 256d
stoy@lemmy.zip · -19 pts · 256d
Don't really care, I am a Swede in Sweden, with no desire to visit the US in the forseeable future.
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 256d
Cool. That's a quality contribution to this disscussion. Really adds a layered nuanced perspective to the topic at hand.
GUYS! WE'RE GOING TO BE OKAY! STOY SAYS THEY DON'T CARE BECAUSE IT DOESN'T AFFECT THEM!!!! WE'RE SAVED!!!!
stoy@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 256d
Sigh, I truly meant it as a a way of saying that I don't care if I am being monitored, I will keep protesting and posting about them.
b_tr3e@feddit.org · -10 pts · 256d
You don't seem quite comfortable with the idea of non-Americans giving as much of a fuck about America as Americans give about anyone else.
b_tr3e@feddit.org · -14 pts · 256d
What's your problem? Tho OP is perfectly right: We are going to be okay. It was not us who elected Trump, after all.
frongt@lemmy.zip · 13 pts · 256d
https://www.euractiv.com/news/far-right-makes-strides-in-swedish-election/
You don't live in a vacuum.
b_tr3e@feddit.org · -2 pts · 256d
Nor do I live in Sweden. Might there even be more than two countries? Questions over questions...
BoycottTwitter@lemmy.zip · 15 pts · 256d
We're all in this together in a way, what becomes normalized in one country risks coming for you one day. Do you notice how other countries have Trump copycats? In fact Trump has learned a lot from Hungary. So when something bad happens in one country we must stand against it no matter where we are because sooner or later if we don't it will come for us.
CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 256d
Stop. You're interfering with his sense of superiority.
BoycottTwitter@lemmy.zip · 10 pts · 256d
Right, I better not tell him about chat control.
stoy@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 256d
I am fully aware and horrified about chat control, I am doing my best to work against it, please see my other responses to understand what went wrong with my comment.
stoy@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 256d
This entire comment chain is a just a mis understanding, I made a bad attempt at being edgy and note that I would not stop protesting ICE just because my account may be monitored.
I can now see how it fell flat, and I am sorry for the miscommunication.
stoy@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 256d
Ok, clearly there has been a miscommunication here.
I was trying to say that I don't care about if I am monitored, I will keep protesting ICE.
I did try and say it a bit edgy which was wrong, I can see that now.
I am sorry for the miscommunication.
BoycottTwitter@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 256d
Thank you so much for clarifying! Yes, now I understand it's a powerful thought like they can't stop me because I live in Sweden, I will keep protesting.
It reminds me of how many countries boycotted South Africa which helped end apartheid.
DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works · 12 pts · 256d
You have the same mindset of an average American. "Not my country, I don't care if people die there"
stoy@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 256d
No?
I thought I was pretty clear,I was trying to say that I don't care about if they monitor my account, I will keep protesting ICE on social media
Nima@leminal.space · 8 pts · 256d
the most american comment in the thread. bravo.
stoy@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 256d
Only due to a mistake, my intention was to to try and show solidarity with the people actually affected by ICE, by saying that I didn't care if ICE monitored my posts, that it would not prevent me from protesting further.
As I woke up this morning, I realized my mistake and have tried to rectify it.
Nima@leminal.space · 2 pts · 256d
then I apologize as well. I read that other comment completely wrong.
stoy@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 256d
I am happy to accept being the most in the wrong, it is not unreasonable to read it that way.
AcidiclyBasicGlitch@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 256d
Ok, thanks for the update! We will cancel the BNB reservation we had waiting for you.
To be clear, this doesn't change how we feel about you, carol.
stoy@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 256d
Ok, clearly there has been a miscommunication here.
I was trying to say that I don't care about if I am monitored, I will keep protesting ICE.
I did try and say it a bit edgy which was wrong, I can see that now.
I am sorry for the miscommunication.
TachyonTele@piefed.social · 1 pts · 256d
Thank you for your service.
I wish more people that didn't care responded with bs comments like yours.
stoy@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 256d
Fair, my comment was rude and arrogant, though I maintain that it was a (failed) attempt at showing contempt toward ICE, telling them that I will keep critisising even if they monitor my account.