It looks like some of the 10 billion dollars that Democrats gave to the U.S. Postal Service through the CARES Act is being used to spy on American citizens.
The law enforcement side of the U.S. Postal Service has been quietly been running a program that spies on American citizen’s social media posts.
The program is called iCOP which stands for Internet Covert Operations Program and reports show that iCOP specifically looked to target Conservatives planning protests on Facebook, Parler, and Telegram.
After receiving a 10 billion dollar handout from the Democrats we should’ve seen this coming.
BREAKING: The Postal Service is running a running a 'covert operations program' that monitors Americans' social media posts. Called iCop. https://t.co/4Z26Kkejs5
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) April 21, 2021
https://twitter.com/weinbergersa/status/1384910762192297984
Yahoo News broke the shocking story:
The law enforcement arm of the U.S. Postal Service has been quietly running a program that tracks and collects Americans’ social media posts, including those about planned protests, according to a document obtained by Yahoo News.
The details of the surveillance effort, known as iCOP, or Internet Covert Operations Program, have not previously been made public. The work involves having analysts trawl through social media sites to look for what the document describes as “inflammatory” postings and then sharing that information across government agencies.
“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,” says the March 16 government bulletin, marked as “law enforcement sensitive” and distributed through the Department of Homeland Security’s fusion centers. “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.”
https://twitter.com/EddieZipperer/status/1385007074560692226
USPS lost not one but *two* of my passports this summer but good to know they are putting money into spying on us https://t.co/juV3sxdOX3
— Karissa Bell (@karissabe) April 21, 2021
The Daily Mail covered the breaking story too:
The United States Postal Service is using its law enforcement arm to track Americans’ social media posts ahead of protests, according to a report Wednesday.
A leaked bulletin first reported by Yahoo News details how the US Postal Inspection Service collected data as part of the Internet Covert Operations Program or iCOP.
Analysts are said to have looked through posts on Facebook, Parler and Telegram before flagging ‘inflammatory’ messages to other government agencies.
An alleged member of the right wing Proud Boys is named, among others who did not appear to have posted anything threatening.
It is unclear exactly why the USPIS is putting resources into surveillance or how iCOP is funded. The USPS was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. In August last year it reported losing $2.2 billion in the three months that ended in June.
You would think if the U.S. Postal Service was financially struggling so badly they wouldn’t add an extra program that spies on American’s.
The Postal Service doesn’t need any more money https://t.co/eKAlyOmw6e
— Jon 🔬 (@JonnyMicro) April 22, 2021
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