{
  "id": 18026931,
  "title": "Postal Service Surveilled Protest Activities Online With Little Rules, Oversight",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/03/postal-service-surveilled-protest-activities-online-with-little-rules",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-11-03T21:45:46.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "EFF Deeplinks",
    "slug": "eff-deeplinks",
    "url": "https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/11/postal-service-surveilled-protest-activities-online-little-rules-oversight"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The U.S. Postal Service utilized social media surveillance, known as the internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP), to monitor and report on protests across various political spectrums, according to government records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and other requesters. The program, disclosed in 2021 after Yahoo News revealed its existence, was used by the agency to sift through social media posts related to protests, with minimal oversight or legal justification. The records reveal that iCOP was employed in 2020 and 2021 to monitor a wide range of planned protests, including a \"Million MAGA March,\" a guns rights advocacy event, and counter-protest in Virginia, as well as nationwide protests in support of the \"Save the Post Office Saturday\" initiative and planned demonstrations in front of then-Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's Washington, D.C. home. Many bulletins provided by the Postal Service described the planned events and referenced discussions on major social media platforms, while some seemed to anticipate potential violent outcomes. Despite acknowledging the lack of specific threat intelligence, the bulletins suggested that the agency anticipated the possibility of unrest. Additionally, the records showed that the Postal Service monitored threats directed at DeJoy. Following the disclosure, the agency renamed iCOP and claimed that it had ceased issuing bulletins, though records indicate that the program's social media surveillance continued. The government also released three email chains detailing how iCOP was queried and its findings disseminated, which are the only existing materials reflecting the agency's use of the program. The Postal Service had minimal records to disclose regarding internal limits on surveillance programs, with the closest thing to guidelines being a set of talking points authored by the Chief Postal Inspector. The talking points stated that the agency did not single out any particular group and did not base its review on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status, or First Amendment freedoms. However, the records raise concerns about potential chilling effects on First Amendment rights and the misuse of obtained information for harassing or retaliating against individuals exercising their constitutional rights.",
  "summary": "The U.S. Postal Service used social media surveillance to monitor and report on protests across the political spectrum, government records show. The records , disclosed to EFF and other requesters suing the postal service under the Freedom of Information Act, show that the agency’s internet Covert Operations Program, or iCOP, routinely sifted through social media posts organizing and discussing…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}