In a wave of nationwide raids, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is swiftly advancing its online surveillance capabilities with a sophisticated system poised to track millions of web users. Documents unveiled by The Lever indicate that ICE is investing $5.7 million in an AI-driven social media analysis tool called Zignal Labs. Will Owen from the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP) has criticized this move as an “assault” on democratic principles and freedom of expression.

The Zignal Labs platform, marketed as providing “real-time intelligence,” can process and analyze enormous volumes of publicly available information, including social media content. According to a brochure obtained by The Lever, the system employs machine learning, computer vision, and optical character recognition to handle over 8 billion posts daily in more than 100 languages. This capability enables ICE to organize data into “curated detection feeds,” potentially identifying individuals for deportation.

The brochure also showcases Zignal’s proficiency in capturing geolocated images and videos, delivering prompt alerts and insights to “operators.” An instance cited involves Zignal Labs using its technology to assess a Telegram video pinpointing an active operation in Gaza. The system identified specific emblems and patches, confirming the involved parties and notifying ground operators. This indicates that ICE might trace a person’s whereabouts from a video posted on TikTok or a photograph on Facebook tagged with a location.

ICE secured its agreement with Zignal Labs via Carahsoft, a company renowned for implementing IT solutions for government bodies. Zignal Labs recently collaborated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to evaluate weather events through public and online media channels. The company has also partnered with the US Secret Service in 2019 and maintains connections with the Department of Defense and Department of Transportation, as noted by The Lever. Attempts by The Verge to obtain further details from Zignal Labs about its ICE contract have yet to receive a response.

The concept of social media surveillance isn’t novel. Back in 2016, the American Civil Liberties Union discovered that law enforcement was employing a CIA-supported tool named Geofeedia to monitor police brutality protesters across platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. However, armed with substantial funding, ICE possesses the resources to deploy a variety of social media monitoring tools that could result in widespread arrests and deportations.

“The prospect of ICE leveraging billions of dollars to intensify social media surveillance is deeply concerning,” comments Owen. “ICE is operating without restraint, utilizing AI-powered social media scrutiny not just to intimidate immigrant families, but also to target activists opposing their misconduct. This constitutes an attack on our democracy and freedom of speech, propelled by algorithmic power and financed by taxpayer money.”

Earlier this month, a report from Wired revealed that ICE plans to hire almost 30 workers to comb through content on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, and other social platforms to “locate individuals who pose a danger to national security, public safety, and/or otherwise meet ICE’s law enforcement mission.”

A document seen by Wired shows that ICE is requesting information from contractors who could help the agency carry out the initiative, which may even require workers to search for data about a target’s family members, friends, or coworkers to pinpoint their whereabouts for ICE officers. The document notes that ICE would place around 12 contractors in a monitoring facility in Vermont, while 16 staff members would work in California, with some required to be available “at all times.”

David Greene, civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, tells The Verge that automated and AI-powered monitoring tools will give the government the ability to “monitor social media for viewpoints it doesn’t like on a scale that was never possible with human review alone.” Greene adds, “The scale of this spying is matched by an equally massive chilling effect on free speech.”

Outside social media, 404 Media reports that ICE has tapped into license plate-scanning security cameras, as well as gained access to a tool that tracks the movement of millions of phones.

The Trump administration’s social media surveillance plans extend beyond ICE, with Citizenship and Immigration Services proposing an initiative that would require people applying for US citizenship or personal residency to provide their social media account handles. In 2019, the State Department began requiring some visa applicants to list their social media handles on sites they’ve used within the past year, but the agency expanded it to include more kinds of nonimmigrant visas in June.

The US government has already started trawling social media for posts that don’t align with the Trump administration’s viewpoints. In March, it began an AI-powered “Catch and Revoke” initiative to track down posts from student visa holders that appear to be in support of Hamas or other designated terror organizations. The State Department also announced earlier this month that it revoked the visas of six people who the US claimed “celebrated” the shooting of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk. This week, ICE arrested nine street vendors on New York City’s Canal Street shortly after a conservative influencer tagged ICE in a post showing vendors in the area.

But now, with a powerful AI social media monitoring tool in the hands of ICE, the agency won’t need influencers to flag individuals for deportation — and it will only get riskier to speak freely on the internet.

“This is another example of Big Tech CEOs partnering with an increasingly authoritarian federal government as part of Trump’s ongoing attempts to clamp down on free speech,” Sacha Haworth, executive director of the Tech Oversight Project, tells The Verge. “This should terrify and anger every American.”