- A leaked bulletin details how the ‘law enforcement arm’ of the USPS collected data as part of the Internet Covert Operations Program or iCOP
- Analysts are said to have looked through posts on Facebook, Parler and Telegram flagging ‘inflammatory’ messages to government agencies
- An alleged member of the right wing Proud Boys is named, among others who did not appear to have posted anything threatening in the memo
- It is unclear why the US Postal Inspection Service is putting resources into surveillance or how iCOP is funded; the USPS was hit hard by the pandemic
- One law professor said: ‘I don’t understand why the government would go to the Postal Service for examining the internet for security issues’
- The US Postal Inspection Service said it ‘has federal law enforcement officers, Postal Inspectors, who enforce approximately 200 federal laws’
- It adds that iCOP ‘assesses threats to Postal Service employees and its infrastructure by monitoring publicly available open source information’