Immigration and Customs Enforcement paid private contractors millions of dollars to monitor social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, X, Reddit, Discord, and LinkedIn to identify users who spoke critically of the agency, The Wall Street Journal reported. Contractors prepare daily reports and dossiers on posters, identifying names, locations, dates of birth, workplaces, Social Security numbers, vehicle registrations, and criminal histories, and are instructed to assess a poster's "proclivity for violence" using behavioral-science methods and facial-recognition tools that match photos to a person's broader online footprint. The program has ensnared U.S. citizens and activist groups that alert community members about ICE activity. To identify anonymous accounts, DHS has sent hundreds of subpoenas to social media companies, recently escalating to grand jury subpoenas; one target is an anonymous Reddit user known as "Tired Thumb," whom the agency sought to unmask after the user made three critical posts about ICE between January and mid-February. ICE spent roughly $258 million on surveillance technology in the past year, a 57% increase over the prior year.