Hate ICE? Social Media Companies Will Snitch on You.

What you need to know to stay safe out there.

Frank Figliuzzi is an FBI Assistant Director (retired); 25-year veteran Special Agent; and author of the national bestseller, The FBI Way, and Long Haul: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers. Subscribe to his Substack.

Illustration by Riley Levine

ICE is using a little-known investigative tool, an administrative subpoena, to force social media platforms to identify anti-ICE account holders. And if that sounds like a potential infringement on civil liberties – you’re right.

Don’t be fooled when you hear the word subpoena and think court order, probable cause, judges, and lawyers. A real subpoena issued by a grand jury or a judge contains all those elements, but not the lowly administrative subpoena that our government is now abusing to determine if we’re critical of their conduct.

Here’s what you need to know about the inherent dangers of this initiative, how your social media platforms are responding, and how we might be plummeting down the slippery slope toward government surveillance of our legal communications.

ICE has issued hundreds of administrative subpoenas to Google, Meta, and other companies to ferret out who amongst us is critical of the agency. An administrative subpoena is little more than a fill-in-the-blanks government form. Once it’s signed by a designated agency employee – like an ICE agent or their supervisor, it becomes a legal means to compel production of records or even testimony without a judge or prosecutor ever knowing about it.

These forms are authorized by statute and designed to apply to certain regulatory and investigative missions where it makes sense to quickly check on compliance concerns. The Drug Enforcement Agency, for example, uses these to monitor pharmacies on how they dole out narcotics. The Federal Trade Commission regularly serves administrative subpoenas to help track adherence to financial regulations and consumer protection requirements.

What ICE is doing is different. They aren’t checking on whether we’re obeying regulations – they’re monitoring those of us who don’t like what ICE is doing.