AJ Vicens and Raphael Satter
(Reuters) – People taking part in Saturday’s mass “No Kings” protest against President Donald Trump’s administration could be monitored by the federal government using a range of technologies that could include facial recognition and phone hacking, civil libertarians said.
No Kings organizers expect 2,600 rallies in all 50 US states. But the level of protest surveillance and the technology used will likely depend on the location and the police force, Thorin Klosowski, a security and privacy activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Friday.
For example, crowds in Washington, DC, where fences have been erected around the White House complex, may be observed differently than in a small country town.
“Under previous administrations, law enforcement surveillance of peaceful demonstrations was already routine and destructive of free speech,” Ryan Shapiro, executive director of the government transparency group People’s Own, said in an email Friday.
“Given Trump’s open hostility to even minor dissent, such surveillance now poses an existential threat to the rest of American democracy and only underscores the need for mass protest.”
One federal law enforcement agency, the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has implemented Trump’s immigration crackdown and amassed an arsenal of digital surveillance, according to multiple news reports.
These include facial recognition and phone hacking tools, as well as mobile site simulators that can allow precise surveillance of protesters’ cellphones. According to the Brennan Center, several federal agencies have implemented social media monitoring.
HIGH-TECH TOOLS
Earlier this year, the Trump administration deployed MQ-9 Predator drones, aircraft traditionally used to detect and kill enemies in combat zones, over Los Angeles during protests against ICE. The agency also uses lower-tech tools, such as the high-definition cameras regularly seen during recent protests in Chicago.
Department of Homeland Security officials did not directly respond to an inquiry about possible surveillance of No Kings protesters. “As they do every day, DHS law enforcement will enforce our nation’s laws,” the department said in a statement. An ICE spokesman told Reuters in an email on Saturday that “The First Amendment protects speech and peaceful assembly, not riots. DHS takes reasonable and constitutional steps to uphold the rule of law and protect our officers.”
Oversight is not limited to federal agencies. Several local police departments have used the facial recognition technology, and laws governing its use vary from state to state, Stateline news agency reported in February.
Nate Wessler, deputy director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, said different technologies have different legal requirements and require specific court authorization for targeted and limited use. But it’s not easy to prove that a particular person was involved in improper data collection, Wessler said.
“It’s a recurring problem in trying to constrain the government’s use of surveillance technology,” he said in an interview. “They are often designed to work undercover, so it can be very difficult to prove whether you or any particular person has been involved in this type of surveillance.”
The Trump administration has “removed or fired” Homeland Security officials who could have curbed the “excess” of surveillance, said Don Bell, senior counsel at the Government Oversight Project’s Constitution Project.
“One of the reasons the use of these technologies is exceptionally dangerous is that there are virtually no legal guardrails to prevent mass surveillance, and what exists has been bulldozed,” Bell said in an email.
Wessler said drones collecting footage raise concerns about the government’s chilling of First Amendment rights. “If you have a large group of peaceful protesters who have a permit on the streets and are doing their thing, there’s no good reason why you should have a drone watching everything they’re doing,” Wessler said.
SOME ANXIOUS PROTESTS
While the first No Kings protest in June drew peaceful, festival-like crowds, Trump and his allies have increasingly criticized the follow-up event, describing protesters as terrorists, Hamas supporters and far-left agitators. The accusations, made without any evidence, have alarmed some observers.
“Even just what the lawmakers are saying is very different this time,” Klosowski said. “I’m a little more nervous this time than last time.
The extent of any planned surveillance is unclear, in part because the Trump administration has refused to share details about how officers typically monitor demonstrators.
In July, Democratic senators asked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem detailed questions about surveillance technology used to monitor protests. The agency never responded, according to Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey’s office.
“Donald Trump has shown that he will aggressively use government powers to suppress dissent,” Markey said in an email. “During this weekend’s No Kings protests, the Trump administration must refrain from surveilling Americans exercising their constitutional rights.”
Plans to hold No Kings protests have drawn the attention of at least one of the US government’s domestic intelligence “fusion centers” set up after the 9/11 attacks, according to an alert obtained by Property of the People.
A document from the Central California Intelligence Center listed Sacramento, Fresno and Stockton among dozens of No Kings protest sites.
Noting that while the protests were described as “non-violent actions”, the center said additional intelligence reports on the rallies were planned. The center did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The National Association of Fusion Centers did not directly address questions about Oct. 18. plans, but told Reuters in 2011. a federal document providing guidance to law enforcement agencies regarding “events protected by the First Amendment.”
(Reporting by AJ Vicens in Detroit and Raphael Satter in Washington; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Nick Zieminski)