One week after Hamas’s October 7 attack, thousands rallied outside the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles to protest the retaliatory assault on Gaza. The protesters were peaceful, carrying signs that said ‘Free Palestine’ and ‘End the Occupation,’” and watched over by a “sizable police presence in the area.” The Los Angeles Police Department 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 police emails obtained via public records request show police used Dataminr to track Gaza-related demonstrations and other constitutionally protected speech, the Intercept reports. The department receives real-time alerts from Dataminr not only about protests in progress, but also warnings of upcoming demonstrations. Police were tipped off about protests in the Los Angeles area and across the country. 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. Between October 2023 and 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.
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,” said Jennifer Granick of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “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.” 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 protest planned for a future date.