Boston Council Hears Warnings on BRIC Social Media Surveillance Before Upcoming Vote

BOSTON — August 19, 2025 — Boston City Council panel hears calls to reject BRIC social media surveillance tools before next week's vote. The Committee on Public Safety and Criminal Justice, chaired by Councilor Henry Santana, held a virtual hearing Tuesday on dockets 1356 and 1357, administration-sponsored orders under the city's Surveillance Oversight and Information Sharing Ordinance covering tools including SITE Intelligence Group and Tangles. Fatima Ahmed, Executive Director of the Muslim Justice League, told councilors that BRIC began using the tools in October 2024 without notifying the council within the required 30-day window, and described the agency putting out twice-daily situational awareness reports tying local Palestine-related events to Al Qaeda and Al-Shabaab news. Computer scientist and former ACLU of Massachusetts researcher Nasser Elidus, who exposed BPD's use of Geofeedia in 2018, said that during 16 months of that program BPD collected roughly 1,900 social media posts — including a Facebook post from then-Councilor Tito Jackson and data on more than 3,500 Boston Public School students — without a single instance of the surveillance helping solve or prevent a crime. All six public commenters urged the council to vote no, with one resident describing BRIC-linked detectives arresting her roommate in their Jamaica Plain home after flagging rap lyrics on her social media profile as a potential threat.