By Natalie DeCoste
In a report released Wednesday, Yahoo!News said it uncovered a program that tracks and collects Americans’ social media posts run by the law enforcement arm of the U.S. Postal Service.
Yahoo revealed that the Post Office undertook a covert surveillance program called Internet Covert Operations Program or iCOP. The operation, which the Post Office did not reveal to the public, is tracking the social media posts of Americans, specifically those about planned protests.
The news outlet obtained a memo from March 16 marked as “law enforcement sensitive,” which detailed the operation.
“Analysts with the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP) monitored significant activity regarding planned protests occurring internationally and domestically on March 20, 2021. Locations and times have been identified for these protests, which are being distributed online across multiple social media platforms, to include right-wing leaning Parler and Telegram accounts,” read the memo.
The bulletin, which was distributed through the Department of Homeland Security’s fusion centers, appears to be referencing demonstrations across the world planned as part of a World Wide Rally for Freedom and Democracy, in which groups were expected to demonstrate for a variety of causes, including lockdown measures and 5G.
“Parler users have commented about their intent to use the rallies to engage in violence. Image 3 on the right is a screenshot from Parler indicating two users discussing the event as an opportunity to engage in a ‘fight’ and to ‘do serious damage,'” read the bulletin.
Within the bulletin were screenshots from social media sites such as Facebook, Parler, and MAGAfirst.org.
Despite the bulletin’s circulation, the Postal Service noted that there was no intelligence available to substantiate the threats.
The monitoring of individuals’ social media accounts is subject to ongoing public scrutiny. On the one hand, there have been calls for law enforcement to track down and arrest those who assaulted the Capitol on Jan. 6. On the other, this kind of data collection has sparked concerns about the government’s mass surveillance of citizens and people engaged in protected First Amendment activities.
In a statement provided to Insider, the U.S. Postal Service said that the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the agency’s law enforcement arm, occasionally reviews publicly available information to “assess potential safety or security threats” to Postal service employees and operations.
However, the choice of the Postal Service to serve as the monitor of social media posts has raised questions from civil liberties experts.
“It’s a mystery. I don’t understand why the government would go to the Postal Service for examining the internet for security issues,” said University of Chicago law professor Geoffrey Stone, who President Barack Obama appointed to review the National Security Agency’s bulk data collection following the 2018 Edward Snowden leaks.
“This seems a little bizarre,” echoed Rachel Levinson-Waldman, deputy director of the Brennan Center for Justice’s liberty and national security program. “Based on the very minimal information that’s available online, it appears that [iCOP] is meant to root out misuse of the postal system by online actors, which doesn’t seem to encompass what’s going on here. It’s not at all clear why their mandate would include monitoring of social media that’s unrelated to use of the postal system.”
