For every Freedom Friday entry, I try to find something that is just as important to you as it is to me.
I love our Constitution, and I love the freedoms our country is built on.
(That’s why I fought for them in the military.)
But while I’ve given “Big Tech” a pretty hard time in other Freedom Friday posts, sometimes Big Brother is the bigger threat… and I don’t know what else to call this.
Well, late last month, Yahoo News apparently did some kind of freedom of information request…
…and they uncovered a massive spying operation by the US Government.
The kicker?
The spying agency isn’t the FBI, the CIA, or the NSA… it’s the USPS!
Andrew Mark Miller, in the Washington Examiner, reports…
The United States Postal Service is apparently tracking social media posts as part of a clandestine program searching for “inflammatory” messages.
The program, known as the Internet Covert Operations Program, or iCOP, has not previously been made public and involves analysts combing through social media sites looking for “inflammatory” postings and then sharing those posts with government agencies, according to a document obtained by Yahoo News.
ICOP specifically tracks protests across the country. A March 16 government bulletin obtained by Yahoo, marked as “law enforcement sensitive,” showed that “analysts with the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP) monitored significant activity regarding planned protests occurring internationally and domestically on March 20, 2021.”
Now, I know what you’re thinking, because it’s the same thing I was thinking (and I’m going to show you how to fight back in a minute):
What the bloody blue blazes does the POST OFFICE have to do with looking for “inflammatory” posts of any kind on social media?
The answer is, NOTHING… and the Post Office knows it!
In response to Yahoo’s exposé, the agency issued this statement:
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is the primary law enforcement, crime prevention, and security arm of the U.S. Postal Service,” the statement read. “As such, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service has federal law enforcement officers, Postal Inspectors, who enforce approximately 200 federal laws to achieve the agency’s mission: protect the U.S. Postal Service and its employees, infrastructure, and customers; enforce the laws that defend the nation’s mail system from illegal or dangerous use; and ensure public trust in the mail.
In other words, while it is empowered to enforce laws relating to the mail, it has NOTHING to do with what you can say online – zip, zero, nada!
This is a horrifying example of a government agency taking too much power for itself, infringing on YOUR free speech rights (because who gets to say what’s “inflammatory?”), and then acting like they “meant to do that” when they get caught.
Well, I have a proven method for how YOU can fight back.
I’ve interviewed data security expert Frank Ahearn more than once here at Warrior Life, and Frank had some great advice for social media.
Don’t stop using social media (because it can be very useful, especially helping to keep our Warrior Life community connected).
Instead, use it MORE.
When you DO use social media, use it to sow misinformation to create a false digital footprint.
Avoid any political statements they might use against you… and make different posts that camouflage who you are so they can’t use your social media to profile you.
It’s a simple method of counter-intelligence that is proven and time tested.
I don’t know what the future will bring, but like you, I’m worried about it… and like you, I always want to find ways to protect my family and myself from the people who want to infringe on my constitutional rights.
This is just one way you can help protect your First Amendment freedoms from people who want to SPY on you… and now, I’d like to hear from you.
Leave me a comment and give me your own tips, okay?
