https://theintercept.com/2025/03/17/lapd-surveillance-gaza-palestine-protests-dataminr/ Support Us Support Us Search for: [ ] [Search] * Politics * Justice * War on Gaza * Technology * Environment * Immigration Support Us * Special Investigations * Voices * Podcasts * Videos * Documents * About * Contact Us * More Ways to Donate * Impact & Reports * Join Newsletter * Jobs * Become a Source * * * * * * * * * (c) THE INTERCEPT ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Terms of Use Privacy * Politics * Justice * War on Gaza * Technology * Environment * Immigration * About * Support Us LAPD Surveilled Gaza Protests Using This Social Media Tool Police records obtained by The Intercept show Dataminr tracked Gaza-related protests and other constitutionally protected speech. [select-] Sam Biddle March 17 2025, 6:00 a.m. Share * Copy link * Share on Facebook * Share on Bluesky * Share on X * Share on LinkedIn * Share on WhatsApp [LAPD-Surveilling-Social-Media-Talk-of-Gaza-Protests-in-LA-and-Beyond_v2] Photo illustration: Fei Liu / Photo: Katie McTiernan/Anadolu; Christina House / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images One week after Hamas's October 7 attack, thousands rallied outside the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles to protest the country's retaliatory assault on Gaza. The protestors were peaceful, according to local media, "carrying signs that said 'Free Palestine' and 'End the Occupation,'" and watched over by a "sizable police presence in the area." The LAPD knew the protests were coming: Two days earlier, the department received advanced warning on Dataminr, a social media surveillance firm and "official partner" of X. Internal Los Angeles Police Department emails obtained via public records request show city police used Dataminr to track Gaza-related demonstrations and other constitutionally protected speech. The department receives real-time alerts from Dataminr not only about protests in progress, but also warnings of upcoming demonstrations as well. Police were tipped off about protests in the Los Angeles area and across the country. On at least one occasion, the emails show a Dataminr employee contacted the LAPD directly to inform officers of a protest being planned that apparently hadn't been picked up by the company's automated scanning. Based on the records obtained by The Intercept, which span October 2023 to April 2024, Dataminr alerted the LAPD of more than 50 different protests, including at least a dozen before they occurred. It's unclear whether the LAPD used any of these notifications to inform its response to the wave of pro-Palestine protests that spread across Southern California over the last two years, which have resulted in hundreds of arrests. Neither the LAPD nor Dataminr responded to a request for comment. "They are using taxpayer money to enlist companies to conduct this surveillance on social media." Privacy and civil liberties experts argue that police surveillance of First Amendment activity from afar has chilling effect on political association, discourse and dissent. "Police departments are surveilling protests which are First Amendment protected political activity about a matter of public importance," Jennifer Granick, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, told The Intercept. "They are using taxpayer money to enlist companies to conduct this surveillance on social media. This is especially worrisome now that the Administration is targeting Gaza protesters for arrest and deportation based on protected activity." DEIR AL-BALAH, GAZA - NOVEMBER 7: Civil defense teams and citizens continue search and rescue operations after an airstrike hits the building belonging to the Maslah family during the 32nd day of Israeli attacks in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza on November 7, 2023. (Photo by Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images) Read our complete coverage Israel's War on Gaza The alerts began pouring in on October 9, when Dataminr flagged a "Protest mentioning Israel" blocking traffic in Beverly Hills, citing a tweet. Over the course of the month, Dataminr tipped off the LAPD to six different protests against the war across Los Angeles. These alerts included information about protests already in progress and information about the time and place of at least one LA protest planned for a future date. Emails produced by the LAPD in response to The Intercept's records request show that along with its regular feed of information about constitutionally protected speech, it also provides the department with alerts curated through feeds with titles like "Domestic Demonstrations Awareness," "LA demonstrations," "LA unrest," and "demonstrations," indicating the department proactively monitors First Amendment gatherings using the platform. The department also began receiving a regular flow of alerts about protests thousands of miles away, including a "protest mentioning Palestinian territories outside the Consulate General of Israel" in Chicago," and tweets from journalist Talia Jane, who was providing real-time updates on an antiwar rally in New York City. Jane told The Intercept that she objects to the monitoring of her reporting by police, and also said Dataminr's summary of her posts were at times inaccurate. In one instance, she says, Dataminr attributed a Manhattan road closure to protesters, when it had in fact been closed by the NYPD. "It's absurd any agency would spend money on a service that is apparently completely incapable of parsing information correctly," she said, adding that "the surveillance of journalists' social media to suppress First Amendment activity is exactly why members of the press have a responsibility to ensure their work is not used to harm people." On October 17, Dataminr sent an "urgent update" to the department warning of a "Demonstration mentioning Palestinian territories planned for today at 17:00 in Rittenhouse Square area of Philadelphia," based on a tweet. Three days later, a similar update noted another "Demonstration mentioning Palestinian territories" planned for Boston's Copley Square. Another warned of a "protest mentioning Palestinian territories" in the planning stages at the Oregon State Capitol. It's unclear if the department intended to cast such a wide net, or if the out-of-state protest alerts were sent in error. Dataminr's threat notifications are known to turn up false positives; multiple tweets by angry Taylor Swift fans aimed at Ticketmaster were forwarded to the LAPD as "L.A. Threats and Disruptions," the records show. Materials obtained by The Intercept also show that despite Dataminr's marketing claims of being an "AI" intermediary between public data and customers, the firm has put its human fingers on the scales. On October 12, a Dataminr account manager emailed three LAPD officers, whose names are redacted, with the subject line "FYSA," military shorthand meaning "for your situational awareness." The email informed the officers of a "Protest planned for October 14 at 12:30 at Consulate General of Israel in Los Angeles," with a link to a tweet by a Los Angeles university professor. It's unclear if the LAPD has requested these manual tip-offs from Dataminr, or whether such personal service is routine; Dataminr did not respond when asked if it was a standard practice. But the hands-on approach undercuts Dataminr's prior claims that it just passively provides alerts to customers about social media speech germane to their interests. A company spokesperson previously told The Intercept that "Every First Alert user has access to the exact same alerts and can choose to receive the alerts most relevant to them."" Most Read [GettyImage] Why Trump Is So Desperate to Keep Mahmoud Khalil in Louisiana Shawn Musgrave [AP25070731] If Protesting Tesla Is Domestic Terrorism, Then What Demonstration Against Musk Isn't Akela Lacy [AP25073827] Appeasement Is Failing: Why Fighting Back Against Trump Is the Only Option Jessica Washington Dataminr pitches its clients across the private and public sector a social media superpower: What if you had immediate access tweet relevant to your interests -- without having to even conduct a search? The company, founded in 2016 and valued at over $4 billion, claims a wide variety of customers, from media newsrooms to government agencies, including lucrative federal contracts with the Department of Defense. It has also found an avid customer base in law enforcement. While its direct access to Twitter has been a primary selling point, Dataminr also scours apps like Snap and Telegram. The company -- which boasts both Twitter and the CIA as early investors -- pitches its "First Alert" software platform as a public safety-oriented newsfeed of breaking events. It has for years defended its police work as simply news reporting, arguing it can't be considered a surveillance tool because the information relayed to police is public and differs in no way from what an ordinary user browsing social media could access. Privacy advocates and civil libertarians have countered that the software provides the government with visibility that far surpasses what any individual user or even team of human officers could accomplish. Indeed, Dataminr's own law enforcement marketing materials claim "30k people working 24/7 would only process 1% of all the data Dataminr ingests each day." [dataminr-twitter-hero-1] Related U.S. Marshals Spied on Abortion Protesters Using Dataminr The company has this power because of its long-standing "official partner" status with both Twitter and now X. Dataminr purchases access to the platform's data "firehose," allowing it to query every single post and scan them on behalf of clients in real-time. Previous reporting by The Intercept has shown Dataminr has used this privileged access to surveil abortion rights rallies, Black Lives Matter protests, and other constitutionally protected speech on behalf of both local and federal police. Dataminr sources told The Intercept in 2020 how the company's human analysts, helping tailor the service to its various police and military customers, at time demonstrated implicit biases in their work -- an allegation the company denied. We're independent of corporate interests -- and powered by members. Join us. Become a member Join Our Newsletter Thank You For Joining! Original reporting. Fearless journalism. Delivered to you. Will you take the next step to support our independent journalism by becoming a member of The Intercept? [ ] I'm in Become a member By signing up, I agree to receive emails from The Intercept and to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Join Our Newsletter Original reporting. Fearless journalism. Delivered to you. I'm in In its previous incarnation as Twitter before its purchase by Elon Musk, and today as X, the social media platform for years expressly prohibited third parties from using its user data for "monitoring sensitive events (including but not limited to protests, rallies, or community organizing meetings)," per its terms of service. Both companies have previously claimed that Dataminr's service by definition cannot be considered surveillance because it is applied against public discourse; critics have often pointed out that while posts are technically public, only a company with data access as powerful as Dataminr's would ever be able to find and flag all of these specific posts amid hundreds of millions of others. Neither company has directly addressed how Dataminr's monitoring of protests is compatible with Twitter and X's explicit prohibition against monitoring protests. Neither X nor Dataminr responded when asked about this contradiction. [GettyImages-2204936347-e1741975375260] Related Why Trump Is So Desperate to Keep Mahmoud Khalil in Louisiana While Dataminr's monitoring of campus protests began before the second Trump administration, it has taken on greater significance now given the White House's overt attempts to criminalize speech critical of Israel and the war in Gaza. Earlier this month, former Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, who helped organize Columbia University's student protests against the war, was abruptly arrested and jailed by plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. The State Department and White House quickly confirmed the arrest was a function of Khalil's antiwar protest efforts, which the administration has described without evidence or explanation as "aligned to Hamas." The White House has pledged to arrest and deport more individuals who have taken part in similar campus protests against the war. Civil libertarians have long objected to dragnet monitoring of political speech on the grounds that it will have a chilling effect on speech guaranteed by the First Amendment. While fires, shootings, and natural disasters are of obvious interest to police, these critics frequently argue that if people know their tweets are subject to police scrutiny without any evidence of wrongdoing, they may tend to self-censor. "Political action supporting any kind of government-disfavored viewpoint could be subject to the same over-policing: gun rights, animal rights, climate change are just a few examples," the ACLU's Granick added. "Law enforcement should leave online organizing alone." Share * Copy link * Share on Facebook * Share on Bluesky * Share on X * Share on LinkedIn * Share on WhatsApp WAIT! BEFORE YOU GO on about your day, ask yourself: How likely is it that the story you just read would have been produced by a different news outlet if The Intercept hadn't done it? Consider what the world of media would look like without The Intercept. Who would hold party elites accountable to the values they proclaim to have? How many covert wars, miscarriages of justice, and dystopian technologies would remain hidden if our reporters weren't on the beat? The kind of reporting we do is essential to democracy, but it is not easy, cheap, or profitable. The Intercept is an independent nonprofit news outlet. We don't have ads, so we depend on our members to help us hold the powerful to account. Joining is simple and doesn't need to cost a lot: You can become a sustaining member for as little as $3 or $5 a month. That's all it takes to support the journalism you rely on. We're independent of corporate interests. Will you help us? ( ) $15 (*) $25 ( ) $50 ( ) $100 ( ) $5 ( ) $8 (*) $10 ( ) $15 ( ) One Time (*) Monthly Donate Contact the author: [select-] Sam Biddle sam.biddle@theintercept.com @sambiddle.99 on Signal @sambiddle.com on Bluesky @samfbiddle on X Related President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, along with his son X AE A-Xii, speaks to reporters by a Tesla vehicle on the South Lawn of the White House Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Washington. (Pool via AP) If Protesting Tesla Is Domestic Terrorism, Then What Demonstration Against Musk Isn't An Ohio National Guard Soldier from the St. Marys, Ohio, Company A, Special Troops Battalion, 37th Brigade throws a grappling hook in order to identify possible enemy mines during training at Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center, Grayling, Mich., Aug. 21, 2015. The Soldier is participating in the eXportable combat training capability program designed to certify platoon proficiency in coordination with 1st Army. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by 1st. Lt. Tyler Piper/Released) They Protested a Military Base Expansion. So the FBI Investigated Them as Terrorism Suspects. BLETCHLEY, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 1: Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and X gestures as he attends the AI Safety Summit in Bletchley Park, on November 1, 2023 in Bletchley, England. The UK Government are hosting the AI Safety Summit bringing together international governments, leading AI companies, civil society groups and experts in research to consider the risks of AI, especially at the frontier of development, and discuss how they can be mitigated through internationally coordinated action. 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