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Twitter must act immediately to stop its developers from facilitating police surveillance of Black protestors and communities. Dataminr, a “Twitter Partner” is helping police track protestors' whereabouts and actions using human analysts to racially profile Black Twitter users based on hunches and racist tropes; these keyword searches are then funneled to the police and used to perpetuate targeted violence against protestors. Dataminr’s actions specifically profile our movements and Black and low-income neighborhoods, violating surveillance policy prohibiting the use of tweets to gather intelligence.1
John, Twitter has vocally supported the movement for Black lives and previously spoken out against law enforcement using Twitter to surveil us. It is time for Twitter to live up to the promise they made to us in 2016 to never allow developers to assist law enforcement to surveil our movements or communities. Black protestors and our communities have a right to protest murders at the hands of police and a justice system that continues to fail us without police tracking our every movement.
Until justice is real,
—Jade, Rashad, Arisha, Johnny, Amanda, Evan, Imani, Marie, Samantha, Eesha, Marcus, FolaSade, Eesha, Jennette, Ciera, Gabrielle, Taurjhai, Stasia, and the rest of the Color Of Change team
References:
- Twitter Surveillance Startup Targets Communities Of Color For Police,” The Intercept, October 21, 2020, https://act.colorofchange.org/go/278144?t=8&akid=47603%2E4731121%2EN_iObq
Color Of Change is building a movement to elevate the voices of Black folks and our allies, and win real social and political change. Please help keep our movement strong.
