Postal Service Surveilled Protest Activities Online with Little Rules, Oversight

Records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit show that the U.S. Postal Service used its internet Covert Operations Program, or iCOP, to monitor and circulate information about planned protests in 2020 and 2021. The events crossed political lines and included the Million MAGA March, a gun-rights rally and counter-protest, demonstrations supporting the Postal Service, protests outside Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s home, and Black Lives Matter actions. Some agency bulletins suggested possible violence based on online material while acknowledging there was no intelligence identifying specific threats. The Postal Service also tracked threats against DeJoy. Heavily redacted emails offer rare evidence of how officials queried the program and shared its results.

The disclosures reveal little about safeguards, training, or legal justification for the surveillance. After iCOP’s existence became public in 2021, the Postal Service said it renamed the program and stopped distributing bulletins, but the records do not establish that monitoring itself ended. The agency also said it had lost access to emails after an external hard drive was damaged, while the original messages had already been deleted under its retention policy. Officials claimed the program did not target groups or infringe First Amendment rights, but monitoring protest organizing was among its documented activities. The central concern is that surveillance can deter people from exercising constitutional rights and allow government information to be used for harassment or retaliation, particularly when meaningful oversight is unclear.