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The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has formalized a significant $5.7 million contract for advanced artificial intelligence (AI) powered social media surveillance software. This latest development marks a substantial expansion in the agency’s ongoing efforts to enhance its digital surveillance capabilities, immediately raising alarms among civil liberties advocates.
Introducing Zignal Labs: A Powerful Surveillance Tool
The five-year agreement, made public in September through federal procurement records, secures licenses for a platform known as Zignal Labs. This sophisticated social media monitoring system is not new to government applications; it is also reportedly utilized by the Israeli military and the Pentagon. The contract was facilitated through Carahsoft Technology, a prominent government technology intermediary.
According to a publicly available, albeit confidential, informational pamphlet, Zignal Labs employs artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze an astonishing volume of online content—over 8 billion social media posts daily. The platform promises “curated detection feeds” for its clients, enabling law enforcement to “detect and respond to threats with greater clarity and speed.”
Expanding Homeland Security’s Digital Reach
While Zignal Labs has previously been procured by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—ICE’s parent agency—for entities like the U.S. Secret Service, Department of Defense, and Department of Transportation, this marks the first known instance of ICE directly accessing the platform. The licenses are specifically designated for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), ICE’s intelligence unit, with the stated purpose of providing “real-time data analysis for criminal investigations.”
This addition significantly bolsters ICE’s growing arsenal of social media surveillance tools. The agency has been increasingly reliant on AI-driven technologies to generate leads and identify perceived “threats” from vast online data troves. Under previous administrations, there has been a noticeable trend toward using social media to direct immigration enforcement strategies.
Recent Incidents Fueling Surveillance Concerns
- Pro-Palestinian activists, including Mahmoud Khalil, have faced targeting and detention by immigration authorities following online doxxing campaigns by right-wing, pro-Israel websites.
- Immigration agents reportedly raided street vendors in New York City after a right-wing influencer’s online video called for official action.
Legal Challenges and Civil Liberty Alarms
The increasing deployment of such technologies has not gone unchallenged. A coalition of labor unions recently filed a lawsuit, contesting the federal government’s escalating use of social media surveillance to target immigrants based on their political speech. They describe this as a “mass, viewpoint-driven surveillance program.”
Furthermore, reports indicate ICE’s ambitions to expand its surveillance capabilities even further, including plans to establish a 24/7 social media monitoring team dedicated to identifying leads for immigration enforcers.
Advocates are voicing grave concerns regarding ICE’s acquisition of Zignal Labs and its broader digital surveillance practices. Patrick Toomey, Deputy Director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project, emphasized: “The Department of Homeland Security should not be buying surveillance tools that scrape our social media posts off the internet and then use AI to scrutinize our online speech. And agencies certainly shouldn’t be deploying this kind of black box technology in secret without any accountability.”
Zignal Labs: From PR to “Tactical Intelligence”
Founded in Silicon Valley in 2011, Zignal Labs initially served public relations firms and political campaigns, offering data analytics and media monitoring. However, like many private tech companies, it later pivoted towards the defense and intelligence sectors. This shift was formalized in 2021 with the establishment of a “public sector advisory board” comprising industry veterans.
A Zignal pamphlet from this year explicitly advertises the company’s engagement with the Israeli military, claiming its platform delivers “tactical intelligence” to “operators on the ground” in Gaza. The document also highlights collaborations with the U.S. Marines and the State Department. Zignal Labs has not yet responded to requests for comment regarding its military partnerships or its new ICE contract.
A Broader Surveillance Ecosystem
The unions’ lawsuit sheds light on the array of digital surveillance tools already at ICE’s disposal, which Zignal Labs now joins. These include:
- ShadowDragon: Software designed to map an individual’s online activity using publicly available websites.
- Babel X: A tool that links social media profiles and location data to a target’s Social Security number.
Julie Mao, an attorney with Just Futures Law, a group closely monitoring ICE’s surveillance regime, noted a significant “uptick in ICE surveillance contracts.” This trend is further underscored by a recent $7 million contract signed by ICE with SOS International LLC for “skip tracing services,” which refers to tracking individuals. This contract followed SOSi’s hiring of Andre Watson, a former ICE Homeland Security Investigations intelligence chief, to expand its business with law enforcement agencies.
Many of these services, including Zignal, boast AI enhancements. Zignal’s CEO, in a July announcement about its partnership with Carahsoft Technology, highlighted the software’s use of AI to analyze global digital data, enabling “defense and intelligence teams detect and respond to threats with greater clarity and speed.” ICE signed its new contract with Carahsoft just two months later.
The extensive use of AI and automated tools for what attorneys with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Yale Law School’s Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic describe as “viewpoint-driven online surveillance” raises profound privacy and free speech concerns. They argue that such technologies “exacerbate the chilling impact” of government surveillance on online expression.