U.S. Postal Service 'iCOP' Program Illegally Monitors Americans' Social Media Posts
Yahoo News revealed in April 2021 that the U.S. Postal Inspection Service had been running a covert program called Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP) that monitored Americans' social media posts for keywords like 'protest,' 'attack,' and 'destroy,' which the USPIS Inspector General later found exceeded the agency's legal authority.
In April 2021, Yahoo News investigative correspondent Jana Winter revealed that the U.S. Postal Inspection Service — the law enforcement arm of the Post Office — was operating a program called iCOP (Internet Covert Operations Program) that conducted keyword searches of social media platforms to monitor Americans' posts about planned protests. The program had been active since at least 2020, beginning after the George Floyd protests. USPIS analysts produced bulletins circulated to other federal agencies flagging social media content related to planned demonstrations. In March 2022, the USPIS Inspector General issued a report finding that the program had exceeded the agency's legal authority: the Postal Inspection Service is statutorily limited to investigating crimes involving the mail, and conducting broad domestic social media surveillance of protest activity was outside that mandate. The IG found the program lacked adequate legal justification and directed reforms. Constitutional scholars called the surveillance a blatant overreach with serious chilling effects on the right to assemble.