Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has used a system called Giant Oak Search Technology (GOST) to help the agency scrutinize social media posts, determine if they are “derogatory” to the U.S., and then use that information as part of immigration enforcement, according to a new cache of documents reviewed by 404 Media.
The documents peel back the curtain on a powerful system, both in a technological and a policy sense—how information is processed and used to decide who is allowed to remain in the country and who is not.
There’s nothing preventing this technology from being used on American citizens, other than the proportional outrage it would be bound to generate if it was also found out.
All in all, this revelation is pretty horrifying, and ICE has demonstrated yet again that it requires less funding, more oversight, or sheer abolition… Or some combination.
These are indexing publicly available social media posts aren’t they? It’s not a policy matter if you’re voluntarily offering it to everyone.
This is the country where free speech is something the government is supposed to not retaliate against right?
This is Immigration. People are voluntarily applying to come to the US. Their public social media posts being reviewed isn’t a privacy violation. Even if it’s done on US citizens, it’s public information. Regardless on whether it’s a good idea or not, it’s not a privacy issue. You’re voluntarily giving up the privacy of the information you do and say in public. If they utilize non-public information then you have an argument.
fuck off.
I’d reply to this, but I feel like my previous comment already did
Keep in mind private companies are doing this, because again, you are voluntarily giving this information up publicly. The solution to it is to stop.
abolish ICE
This is why I can’t travel to China
This is happening in the United States.
