The FBI has a little-known effort known as Social Media Exploitation, or SOMEX, that allows agents to monitor Americans’ social media posts for threats of violence and other law enforcement purposes, with virtually no oversight and no requirement to show a prior threat.
That’s the main finding of a USA TODAY investigation published this week. My colleague Tami Abdollah and I outline the FBI’s SOMEX efforts and consider how the FBI’s history of bias might impact this new era in domestic surveillance. We also drill into why bureau officials told Congress they didn’t have the “authority” to do something they’ve actually been doing for years.