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1 Civil Rights Concerns about Social Media Monitoring by Law Enforcement 1 (2019)

handle is hein.brennan/cvlrtscsm0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Civil Rights Concerns about Social Media Monitoring by Law Enforcement Social media has proven to be an invaluable tool for activists to connect and organize online. Powerful platforms have allowed movements like #BlackLivesMatter, #NotlMore, and #MeToo to flourish and influence the national dialogue on issues that affect all Ameicans, including the most vulnerable people in the United States.! But these services have also provided law enforcement with unprecedented power to monitor these growing movements and the people they represent. Often covert and conducted without oversight, social media surveillance gives law enforcement agencies the ability to monitor and archive information on millions of people's activities.' This includes tracking people's political actions, a practice that endangers activists and undermines our First Amendment rights to speech and association. This is particularly concerning given repeated recent reports of targeting and surveillance of Black protesters and activists, family separation protestors, and border groups by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security.3 At the same time, few law enforcement agencies have publicly available policies showing how they use social media data on the communities they are supposed to protect. As with other surveillance in the United States, it appears that social media monitoring has been focused disproportionately on communities of color and other marginalized communities. These monitoring tactics and law enforcement secrecy lead to civil rights and civil liberties harms. Here are six of the harmful impacts from social media surveillance that lawmakers and the public must take into account in any discussion about surveillance of social media users. 1See Monica Anderson, Skye Toor, Lee Rainie, & Aaron Smith, Activism in the SocialMediaAge, PEW RESEARCH CTR. OJuly 11, 2018), httDs://vww.Dewinternet.orL201807Zl1/activism-in-the-social-media- age/ (Certain groups of social media users - most notably, those who are black or Hispanic - view these platforms as an especially important tool for their own political engagement.'). 2 See Rachel Levinson-Waldman, Government Access to and Manipulation of SocialMedia: Legal and Pokc Challenges, 61 How. L.J. 523 (2018), httls://docs.wixstatic.comugd.cc2615 23ccb9a7aala4098b4742b01e5e443e6.pdf#lpage43; Rachel Levinson-Waldman, Private Eyes, The'r Watching You: Law Enforcement's Monitoring of Social Media, 71 OKLA. L. REV. 997 (2019), httpgs://digitalcom-ons.law.ou.edu /olr /vol71, liss4/2. 3 Maya Berry & Kai Wiggins, Leaked Documents Contain Major Revelations About the FBI's Terrorism Classications, JUST SECURITY (Sep. 11, 2019), htto:Z /www.iustsecuritj.7orZ 66124/leaked-documents-contain-maio - revelations-about-the- fbis-terrorism-classifications /;Jana Winter & Hunter Walker, Exclusive: Document Reveals the FBI is Tracking Border Protest Groups as Extremist Organizations, YAHOO NEWS (Sep. 4, 2019), httrps/ /news yahoo.comexclusive-document-reveals- the- fbi-is-trackin -border- protest- fou s-as-extremist- oranizations-170050594.hmil; Igor Derysh, Leaked Documents Show FBI Targeted Post -Ferguson 'Black Identit Extremists Over White Supremacists, SALON (Aug. 14, 2019, 10:00 AM), https://www salon.com/2019L/08/14/ leaked-documents-show-fbi-targeted- ost-ferguson-black-identity- extremists-over-white-supremacists /; Ryan Devereaux, Homeland Securit Used a Private Inteligence Firm to Monitor Famroy Separation Protests, INTERCEPT (Apr. 29, 2019, 11:25 a.m.), htts/ /theinterceot cor/2019 /04Z29/ family-se aration protests -surveillance/.