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Report: Pentagon’s Counter Extremism Group Designing Pilot Program to Surveil Military

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Report: Pentagon’s Counter Extremism Group Designing Pilot Program to Surveil Military

Kristina Wong 18 May 2021

The Biden Pentagon’s new Counter Extremism Working Group (CEWG) is planning to surveil members of the military’s social media accounts for “extremism” using a private surveillance firm in order to circumvent First Amendment restrictions on government monitoring, according to a recent report.

Babel Street is currently the frontrunner for private surveillance firms the Pentagon is considering, the Intercept reported Tuesday.

The firm buys bulk cellular location data and sells it to federal government agencies, including the Secret Service, to bypass surveillance warrant requirements, according to the report.

The Pentagon announced in April it would look into screening service members and recruits’ social media accounts, as Breitbart News has reported.

The Pentagon’s memo said one of the CEWG’s four lines of effort (LOE) includes pursuing better screening of troops’ and recruits’ social media. It said:


--- Quote ---This LOE will examine the Department’s pursuit of scalable and cost effective capabilities to screen publically [sic] available information in accessions and continuous vetting for national security positions. The LOE will make recommendations on further development of such capabilities and incorporating algorithms and additional processing into social media screening platforms. This LOE will also endeavor to develop policy to expand user activity monitoring of both classified and unclassified systems.
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/05/18/report-pentagons-counter-extremism-group-designing-pilot-program-surveil-military/

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