{"id":34698,"date":"2021-04-30T16:22:12","date_gmt":"2021-04-30T23:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=34698"},"modified":"2021-04-30T16:22:12","modified_gmt":"2021-04-30T23:22:12","slug":"gaetz-house-republicans-want-to-end-funding-for-postal-service-surveillance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=34698","title":{"rendered":"Gaetz, House Republicans want to end funding for postal service surveillance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rep.\u00a0Matt Gaetz\u00a0(R-Fla.) and a group of other House Republicans on Friday introduced legislation to end funding for an arm of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) that carries out online surveillance.<\/p>\n<p>The legislation was rolled out in response to a March bulletin,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/click1.email.thehill.com\/blcbvsdkzppynsnpyjgzzybbzdympdpttqzkscmppqzcqq_lwdmjjgkgrmnmhqmwngn.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/click1.email.thehill.com\/blcbvsdkzppynsnpyjgzzybbzdympdpttqzkscmppqzcqq_lwdmjjgkgrmnmhqmwngn.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1619904182436000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGjLCjgFMYVgw59v5m6524EqttdAg\">reported by Yahoo! News<\/a>\u00a0earlier this month, distributed by the USPS\u2019s Inspection Service\u2019s Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP). The bulletin cited iCOP concerns about potential \u201csignificant\u201d protests planned for March 20 based on \u201conline inflammatory material\u201d and posts on social media platforms Parler and Telegram.<\/p>\n<p>\u201ciCOP analysts are currently monitoring these social media channels for any potential threats stemming from the scheduled protests, and will disseminate intelligence updates if needed,&#8221; the agency wrote in the bulletin.<\/p>\n<p>The new bill backed by almost a dozen House Republicans would prohibit federal funds from being used for iCOP. The legislation\u2019s text accuses the organization of being \u201cpolitically motivated in its target,\u201d and the USPS of \u201coperating a clandestine domestic surveillance program of Americans\u2019 social media activity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rep.\u00a0Matt Gaetz\u00a0(R-Fla.) and a group of&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34698"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34699,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34698\/revisions\/34699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}