Justice Department, Meta crack down on doxxing ICE agents

Social media giant Meta took down a large Facebook page used for identifying and targeting Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents operating in Chicago, according to a Tuesday statement from Attorney General Pam Bondi. These targeted identifications, known as doxxing, are meant to intimidate law enforcement members by identifying and sharing personal information like their home addresses or family details.

The Department of Homeland Security claims that more ICE agents have been doxxed during the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration. Mexican crime groups will pay $2,000 for agents to be doxxed, DHS said on Tuesday. Crime groups offered up to $10,000 for any kidnappings or non-lethal assaults against federal officers, and up to $50,000 for the assassination of high-ranking officials, DHS claimed.

Apps and social media platforms have been driving a wave of violence against ICE officers who are just doing their jobs, Bondi wrote. The Department of Justice will continue working with tech companies to shut down platforms where radical users incite imminent violence against federal officers, she added.

Is shutting down doxxing groups a violation of free speech? The Philadelphia-based Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, known as FIRE, describes doxxing as a slippery slope, legally speaking. On the one hand, publishing truthful, legally obtained information received from a human source is a constitutionally protected right. Speech viewed as obscene or annoying is still protected under the Constitution, FIRE noted. However, FIRE noted that any harassment and threats incited by publishing that information are illegal, unprotected speech. Merely the fear of harm caused by disclosing truthful information doesn’t justify censorship, according to the group.

Does this all have something to do with ICE agents wearing ski masks? Federal officials allowed ICE agents to wear masks to conceal their identity to protect them from being doxxed while working. The uniform change made headlines, with many likening it to authoritarian secret police, but ICE’s Acting Director Todd Lyons defended the change during a June press conference. People were taking pictures of officers and posting their names and faces online with death threats, Lyons said. He described online users identifying and targeting officers’ families, even labeling some ICE families as terrorists. 

Dig deeper: Read my previous report on DHS claiming over 2 million immigrants had been deported since the Trump administration resumed office.