Smartphone And Social Media: Two-Eyed Sword Amid Problems With ICE

JAKARTA - Smartphones are now an important tool for Americans in sharing images and videos related to raids, arrests, and protests against ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). However, on the other hand, the same device is also used to monitor civilians, making them a double-edged sword in the midst of increasingly complicated situations.

For many Americans today, smartphones have become the main weapon against ICE's actions, in the hope that public documentation of ICE agents can suppress the use of violence during raids.

In some cases, video recordings uploaded to social media even make ICE agents stop their actions, as if they are aware that these actions are inappropriate to take in public.

These recordings, along with photos taken via smartphone, spread widely on social media. Not surprisingly, because platforms like X (Twitter), Instagram, and TikTok are now the main sources of information dissemination about actual events including events that often escape the attention of the big media.

Apart from social media, a number of applications such as ICEBlock also emerged this year. The application allows residents to share information about the real-time location of ICE agents, so that people can avoid risky areas.

How it works is similar to the Waze application which informs the location of traffic raids. However, even though it is useful for many people, smartphones and social media remain a double-edged sword amid this tension.

ICE And Trump Also Use Technology For Supervision

On the other hand, ICE and the Donald Trump administration also use smartphones and social media as a means of monitoring the community. This situation creates a two-way path that is not unilateral. Therefore, now more than ever, people are asked to be careful with what they share in cyberspace.

Both in the form of opinions, video recordings, and applications that monitor ICE activities, every public upload can be used for unwanted purposes. A number of applications such as ICEBlock and Eyes Up designed to help the public report acts of violence or kidnapping by ICE agents have been removed from the Google Play app store and the Apple App Store at government pressure.

According to Kyle Chayka's report on The New Yorker, ICE uses Palantir's software to collect data from social media, government records, to the biometric data of detainees. With this kind of technology, officials can monitor anyone's online activity which they think has the potential to be 'probleming'.

The public is advised to remain wise in sharing information. This does not mean that you should not voice opinions or share evidence of abuse of power, but every action should be taken with careful consideration.

So far there has been no broad report on individuals being targeted directly because of their posts related to the ICE or Trump administration policies. However, that doesn't mean it won't happen. The further Trump's second term goes, the more things that might have happened even those that were previously hard to believe a few years ago