Facebook spied on private messages of Americans who questioned 2020 election

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Facebook has been spying on the private messages and data of American users andย reporting them to the FBIย if they express anti-government or anti-authority sentiments โ€” or questionย the 2020 electionย โ€” according to sources within the Department of Justice.

Under the FBI collaboration operation, somebody at Facebook red-flagged these supposedly subversive private messages over the past 19 months and transmitted them in redacted form to the domestic terrorism operational unit at FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, without a subpoena.

โ€œIt was done outside the legal process and without probable cause,โ€ alleged one of the sources, who spoke on condition of ยญanonymity.

โ€œFacebook provides the FBI with private conversations which are protected by the First Amendment without any subpoena.โ€

These private messages then have been farmed out as โ€œleadsโ€ to FBI field offices around the country, which subsequently requested subpoenas from the partner US Attorneyโ€™s Office in their district to officially obtain the private conversations that Facebook already had shown them.

But when the targeted Facebook users were investigated by agents in a local FBI field office, sometimes using covert surveillance techniques, nothing criminal or violent turned up.

โ€œIt was a waste of our time,โ€ said one source familiar with subpoena requests lodged during a 19-month frenzy by FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, to produce the caseload to match the Biden administrationโ€™s rhetoric on domestic terrorism after the Jan.โ€‰6, 2021, Capitol riot.

โ€˜Red-blooded Americansโ€™

The Facebook users whose private communications Facebook had red-flagged as domestic terrorism for the FBI were all โ€œconservative right-wing individuals.โ€

โ€œThey were gun-toting, red-blooded Americans [who were] angry after the election and shooting off their mouths and talking about staging protests. There was nothing criminal, nothing about violence or massacring or assassinating anyone.

โ€œAs soon as a subpoena was requested, within an hour, Facebook sent back gigabytes of data and photos. It was ready to go. They were just waiting for that legal process so they could send it.โ€

Facebook denied the allegations yesterday.

By Miranda Devine

Read Full Article on NYPost.com

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