The new program, called “masked engagement,” allows homeland security officers to assume false identities and interact with users—friending them, joining closed groups, and gaining access to otherwise private postings, photographs, friend lists and more.
A senior Department of Homeland Security official tells me that over 6,500 field agents and intelligence operatives can use the new tool, a significant increase explicitly linked to more intense monitoring of American citizens.
Seriously, I do my best to live by Stasi rules when it comes to my political opinions: Never say it in public, never say it over technology, never say it to a group of people, and never write it down.