meta has started It blocks users from sharing links to the ICE List, a website that compiles the names of people claiming to be Homeland Security employees, and its creators say the project is aimed at holding employees accountable.
ICE List creator Dominic Skinner told WIRED that links to the website have been shared on Meta’s platform for more than six months without any issues.
“I don’t think it’s surprising that a company run by a man who sat behind President Trump at his inauguration and donated money to destroy the White House would support the anonymity of ICE agents,” Skinner said.
As Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents under DHS continue to terrorize immigrant communities and kill Americans, activists are tracking and documenting their activities online to hold them accountable. But in addition to threatening to prosecute those it claims are “leaking” ICE agents, the Trump administration has also pressured technology companies to block any efforts to crowdsource the locations and activities of these agents.
ICE List began operation in June last year. Skinner said the organization is run by a core team of five people, including himself, and hundreds of anonymous volunteers who share information about ICE agents in cities across the country.
The site made headlines earlier this month when it claimed to have uploaded a list of 4,500 leaked DHS employees to the site, but a WIRED analysis found that the list relied heavily on information employees publicly shared about themselves on sites like LinkedIn.
Skinner said Monday night that volunteers he works with across the country first reported problems with posting links to Meta’s platform.
On Tuesday morning, WIRED confirmed that posting links to the site was blocked on Instagram, Facebook, and threads. WIRED also confirmed that you can also send links on WhatsApp, another product owned by Meta.
All social media platforms that are blocked from linking are owned by Meta, but users may have different reasons for not being able to link to ICE List websites.
When WIRED tried to post the link on Facebook, it received a message saying, “In accordance with our community guidelines, posts that appear to be spam are blocked on Facebook and cannot be edited.” But a few hours later, the message was updated to say, “This link violates our community standards and the content could not be shared.” The message linked to Meta’s community standards home page, rather than to any specific part of the rules.
In Threads, on the other hand, when I pasted it into a new post, the link immediately disappeared, leaving me with only a notification that said “Links are not allowed.”
On Instagram, a notification that appeared after trying to post a Story said, “We’re restricting certain activities to protect our community. If you think we made a mistake, please let us know.”
When asked about the block, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone explained to WIRED the company’s policy on sharing personally identifiable information. When WIRED pointed out that the information on the ICE list did not appear to include information described in Meta’s policy, he said it was related to a policy that prohibits “content that solicits the personal information of others.”
In response, Skinner pointed out that the ICE list requires information on the identities of ICE agents for six months.
