Spanish
New York.- Three labor unions sued Donald Trump's government for the "ideological surveillance" of the social media of immigrants with visas in the United States through artificial intelligence (AI) in order to "punish" opinions contrary to their policies.
The unions United Auto Workers (UAW), Communications Workers of America (CWA), and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) filed the lawsuit against the State and Homeland Security Departments yesterday, according to local media this Friday.
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The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), representing the unions in the lawsuit, the first of its kind, argued in a statement that the "opinion-based 'online' surveillance program violates the First Amendment (freedom of speech) and the Administrative Procedure Act". "Using AI and other automation technologies, the program monitors the social media accounts of people with visas to identify and punish those who express opinions that the Government does not like", a measure that is accompanied by a "public intimidation campaign", they maintain. The plaintiffs asked a New York judge for an order to halt the government's surveillance program because it "has silenced and frightened citizens and non-citizens (of the U.S.), and undermined the ability of unions to associate with their members and potential members". According to the note, 80% of UAW members who are visa-holding immigrants and aware of the surveillance program said in a survey that they had changed their social media activity, and in the case of the CWA, it was 40%. EFF attorney Lisa Femia added that AI tools allow the Government to analyze data "at a scale that was never possible with human review alone", and warned that "the scale of this spying is matched by an equally chilling and massive effect on freedom of expression".
