US immigration enforcement used an AI-powered device to experiment social media posts "derogatory" to america

A hot potato: The rule approximately being careful what you placed on social media appears to be particularly relevant for absolutely everyone entering the USA. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has used an AI-powered tool to experiment through social systems to discover any visa applicants' posts that are "derogatory" to the US.

The system, known as Giant Oak Search Technology (GOST), ranks someone's social media scores from one to 100 based on what it thinks is relevant to the consumer's particular assignment. The database is searchable the usage of identifiers such as someone's call, address, e mail cope with, and u . S . A . Of citizenship.

After clicking on a specific man or woman, analysts can review images collected from the problem's social media bills and some other place, and supply them a thumbs up or thumbs down rating. It's additionally possible for the analysts to look at the person's social media profiles, and their "social graph," themselves to see any capability connections with others.

404 Media reviews that a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit introduced by way of both the ACLU and the ACLU of Northern California confirmed GOST has been used by immigration offerings and multiple authorities agencies on the grounds that 2014. ICE has paid Giant Oak Inc. Extra than $10 million due to the fact that 2017, in step with public procurement statistics.

GOST changed into a part of a 2016 pilot called the HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] PATRIOT Social Media Pilot Program that targeted potential overstay violators from nations of difficulty.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the State Department, the Air Force, and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, that's part of america Treasury, have all paid for Giant Oak services over the past nearly ten years.

The GOST internet site states that it leverages statistics at the open and deep internet and applies seek parameters centered on behavioral patterns as opposed to identification labels.

"The government ought to not be using algorithms to scrutinize our social media posts and decide which people is 'unstable.' And corporations definitely shouldn't be buying this sort of black container generation in secret with none responsibility," said Patrick Toomey, Deputy Director of the ACLU's National Security Project. "DHS needs to provide an explanation for to the general public how its structures determine whether a person is a 'threat' or not, and what takes place to the human beings whose on-line posts are flagged by its algorithms."

The information state that the contract between the DHS and Giant Oak led to August 2022.

Back in 2019, the Trump administration delivered in new rules first proposed in March 2018 in which visa applicants ought to give up information of any social media channels they have got used within the past 5 years. The State Department and the Department of Homeland Security can maintain onto this information indefinitely, share it with different federal groups, and reveal it - in some occasions, to overseas governments.

2019 became the identical year that a Harvard student become denied access to the USA due to his friends' social media hobby.