ICE Masks Up in More Ways Than One (Feds could be in your group chat)

https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/exclusive-ice-masks-up-in-more-ways

The new program, called “masked engagement,” allows homeland security officers to assume false identities and interact with users—friending them, joining closed groups, and gaining access to otherwise private postings, photographs, friend lists and more.

A senior Department of Homeland Security official tells me that over 6,500 field agents and intelligence operatives can use the new tool, a significant increase explicitly linked to more intense monitoring of American citizens.

137 points · 19 comments · view on lemmy.world

19 Comments

ButteryMonkey@piefed.social · 40 pts · 187d (2 replies)

I honestly just assumed that was happening anyway. Good to get it in public eyes, though.

WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 187d

I am certain most 2020's state/fed level law enforcement globally do this whenever they have the funding, means, and manpower.

FudgyMcTubbs@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 187d

Seriously, I do my best to live by Stasi rules when it comes to my political opinions: Never say it in public, never say it over technology, never say it to a group of people, and never write it down.

in_my_honest_opinion@piefed.social · 19 pts · 187d

The bastards have been at it a long while
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO

Surveillance self defense
https://ssd.eff.org/

How to spot a fed
https://crimethinc.com/2013/07/06/is-she-an-informant-a-ten-point-checklist

Anybody wants a copy of any of the zines below, DM me

https://crimethinc.com/zines

RodgeGrabTheCat@sh.itjust.works · 14 pts · 187d

I imagine law enforcement would be in most forums. Stay private, folks.

human@slrpnk.net · 14 pts · 187d

They do.

Zephorah@discuss.online · 10 pts · 187d

I assumed this was a given. Of course there are going to be people on Lemmy and Reddit and Discord whose sole reason for being there is information. Possibly even encouraging violence to see who takes the bait.

There’s a podcast series called The Michigan Plot. Wherein undercover FBI pick the dumbest man in the group and lead him where they want him to go. It’s a bit of a horror show whatever your political lean. That dumb man is now in prison.

Doing such on social media would be much cheaper and easier.

glitching@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 187d

compartmentalize. if your group chat can't meet IRL at a physical table, it's too large, divide it into smaller operative units.

FauxLiving@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 187d

tlmcleod@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 6 pts · 187d

Ha! Good luck with that. I would need to have friends first to even be in a group chat for them to infiltrate.

thesmokingman@programming.dev · 6 pts · 187d

More importantly, with this permission now ICE can make you do terrorism then charge you for their idea. There’s a long pattern of this.

I’m not saying you have to agree with the ideology of everyone on this list. You just gotta understand that entrapment isn’t really a defense so you have to be super fucking careful about any hothead in your circle that might talk about illegal shit. Now that the real domestic terrorists that were mostly law enforcement for the past three decades are in law enforcement you can 100% expect the same treatment for people just trying to organize a food bank or get basic worker protections.

And before I have to defend it, yes, Randy Weaver was a fucking shithead but the federal government actively coerced him into breaking the law. Yes the Whitmer kidnappers planned to do some idiotic stuff but it turns out they were unorganized potheads with big mouths who got arrested because an ex-military informant railroaded the plot for them. Yes Flaviu sounds sketchy but the Glomar response exists. I don’t think I have to defend my distaste for Mickey here.

BaroqueInMind@piefed.social · 5 pts · 187d (1 reply)

To the Fed lurking here about to read my comment history: I know what it looks like, but I swear I didn't write any of it.

Telorand@reddthat.com · 5 pts · 187d