(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The House Judiciary Committee recently discovered that the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force—which was responsible for helping squash the Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 election—uses a secret software tool to monitor Americans’ social media content.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, disclosed the tool in an open letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday, demanding answers about how it’s used. Jordan said he learned of the software tool last month, when interviewing an FBI Criminal Investigative Division Analyst previously assigned to the FITF.
According to Jordan, the FBI analyst “disclosed that the FITF uses ‘software tools where [the FBI can] search open-source databases about content indicative of criminal conduct.’ According to the analyst’s testimony, the FBI uses this tool to monitor social media posts by users, regardless of whether the users are American citizens or foreign actors, to search for ‘content indicative of criminal conduct.'”
Was the FBI using a software tool to spy on you during election season?
Seems like it. pic.twitter.com/C0eo4A9mti
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) November 12, 2024
“The analyst further testified that the FBI shares its findings, such as the specific ‘username and the content’ of the posts, with social media companies to censor such content accordingly.”
The FBI analyist told the committee that the FBI only uses the tool to monitor “criminal conduct.” But according to Jordan, an FBI attorney repeatedly interrupted lawmakers when they questioned the analyst about the nature of the software tool and the scope of the FBI’s use of it.
“Agency counsel repeatedly prevented the analyst from fully answering the Committee’s questions,” Jordan said. “Therefore, we write to obtain additional information in order to understand whether the FBI has or could use this software tool to censor or infringe upon lawful speech, particularly Americans’ political speech.”
Jordan seeks a briefing on the software by Nov. 26.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
