One of the nation's leading electronic privacy groups claimed this week that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) misled members of Congress during a recent hearing on whether the Department is paying a defense contractor $11.4 million to keep tabs on protected free speech and dissent against government policies on the Internet.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), which triggered the hearing by publishing a trove of secret government documents in January, told Raw Story on Thursday that a second round of documents they've obtained directly contradicts testimony given on Feb. 16, showing that the DHS instructed their analysts to do exactly what the Department denied.
"There were several exchanges that they had with members of Congress in which they sort of distanced themselves from the idea — that they weren't engaging in this monitoring of public reaction to government proposals," McCall told Raw Story. "But that's… Well, it's not true, according to the documents we obtained."
In a letter (PDF) sent Wednesday to the ranking members of the House Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, Ginger McCall, who directs EPIC's Open Government Project, explains that details within the document directly contradicttestimony given during the hearing(PDF).
Altogether, the documents released by EPIC in January and in February reveal that the Department is paying defense contractorGeneral Dynamics to monitor the Internet for "reports that reflect adversely on DHS and response activities," including "reports that pertain to DHS and sub agencies — especially those that have a negative spin on DHS/Component preparation, planning, and response activities," among other things.
"The DHS testimony, as well as the documents obtained by EPIC, indicate that the agency is monitoring constantly, under very broad search terms, and is not limiting that monitoring to events or activities related to natural disasters, acts of terrorism, or manmade disasters," McCall explained to lawmakers. "The monitoring is designed to be over-broad, and sweeps in large amounts of First Amendment activity. The DHS has no legal authority to engage in this monitoring."
In an email exchange, DHS spokesman Matthew Chandler insisted that they only monitor social media "for situational awareness purposes only, within the clearly defined parameters articulated in our Privacy Impact Assessment (PDF), to ensure that critical information reaches appropriate decision-makers." He added that the DHS will "review the language contained in all materials to clearly and accurately convey the parameters and the intention of the program."
Documents published by EPIC show that analysts were instructed to watch for "both positive and negative reports" about the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the strangely wide-ranging "organizations outside of DHS." Other "items of interest" include discussions about immigration policies, drug policies, cyber security matters, and U.S. foreign policy.
About 300 pages of documents (PDF) obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit and published by EPIC in January revealed that analysts were specifically told to scour the Internet and social networks like Facebook and Twitter in search of "any media reports that reflect adversely on the U.S. Government," and to zero in on discussions criticizing government policies and proposals.
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