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Civil Rights Advocates Call on Boston to Drop Social Media Monitoring Bid

Various groups warn that the tool “will hugely expand BPD’s online surveillance capabilities and allow them to focus on persons or groups considered suspicious because of their political or religious views.”

(TNS) -- A host of civil rights groups and privacy advocates led by the ACLU is formally calling on the city to drop its planned $1.4 million purchase of powerful software to monitor social media, arguing it will unavoidably chill free speech and ensnare innocent minority youth.

In the letter delivered yesterday to Mayor J. Walsh and police Commissioner William B. Evans, the groups warn that the tool “will hugely expand BPD’s online surveillance capabilities and allow them to focus on persons or groups considered suspicious because of their political or religious views.”

“The city should not facilitate this type of abuse—if not by this BPD, then by future police and city leaders,” the letter reads. “Constant government surveillance chills political speech and associations. Studies show that people are less likely to voice their unpopular opinion if they think the government is watching.”

The City Council currently is reviewing the Boston police spending request, which is part of $14 million in Homeland Security grant spending the council must approve.

BPD has received bids, but has not decided whether or not to move forward with the purchase.

“We have no desire to comment on the letter or its contents,” Boston police spokesman Lt. Michael McCarthy said. “The department is in the process of reviewing options and no decisions have been made.”

In addition to the ACLU of Massachusetts, the letter’s 21 signatories include the Boston Student Advisory Council, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Jewish Voice for Peace, the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, and the Union of Minority Neighborhoods.

Evans has said the technology would not be used to target any particular group — including blacks, Muslims, and gays — and will only access publicly available information. But the department has been mum on calls for it to release the kinds of terms they would use the technology to scour social media for.

©2016 the Boston Herald Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.