Investigate the Postal Service's Social Media Surveillance of Protest Activities

I'm writing to urge you to launch a thorough investigation into the U.S. Postal Service's social media surveillance program, iCOP, which monitored American citizens' protest activities with minimal oversight. Newly disclosed documents show the Postal Service routinely tracked planning for protests across the political spectrum between 2020 and 2021—from the Million MAGA March to Black Lives Matter demonstrations, gun rights rallies, and even protests against Postmaster General DeJoy himself. The program scraped social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok, and Reddit to identify and report on lawful assembly and free speech organizing. What's most troubling isn't just the surveillance itself, but what happened—or didn't happen—after. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, iCOP operated with virtually no recorded oversight or legal justification. Despite claims the program protected postal workers, many bulletins acknowledged having "no intelligence to suggest specific threats" while still flagging protesters as potential security risks. After the program's existence came to light in 2021, the Postal Service simply renamed iCOP and claimed to stop issuing bulletins. But there's no evidence the surveillance actually ended, and the government has been remarkably opaque about whether similar programs continue today. This kind of monitoring chills First Amendment activity. When citizens fear their online organizing will be flagged by a federal agency, they're less likely to exercise their constitutional rights to assemble and speak freely. That affects everyone, regardless of political viewpoint. I ask that you use your new oversight authority in 2027 to determine: Does this surveillance continue? What internal controls exist now? And what steps will Congress take to prevent future abuse? These questions deserve answers. Our civil liberties depend on them.