Labor Unions, EFF Sue Trump Administration to Stop Ideological Surveillance of Free Speech Online

NEW YORK—The United Automobile Workers (UAW), Communications Workers of America (CWA), and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) filed a lawsuit today against the Departments of State and Homeland Security for their viewpoint-based surveillance and suppression of protected expression online. The complaint asks a federal court to stop this unconstitutional surveillance program, which has silenced and frightened both citizens and noncitizens, and hampered the ability of the unions to associate with their members and potential members. The case is titled UAW v. State Department.

Since taking power, the Trump administration has created a mass surveillance program to monitor constitutionally protected speech by noncitizens lawfully present in the U.S. Using AI and other automated technologies, the program surveils the social media accounts of visa holders with the goal of identifying and punishing those who express viewpoints the government doesn’t like. This has been paired with a public intimidation campaign, silencing not just noncitizens with immigration status, but also the families, coworkers, and friends with whom their lives are integrated.

As detailed in the complaint, when asked in a survey if they had changed their social media activity as a result of the Trump administration’s ideological online surveillance program, over 60 percent of responding UAW members and over 30 percent of responding CWA members who were aware of the program said they had. Among noncitizens, these numbers were even higher. Of respondents aware of the program, over 80 percent of UAW members who were not U.S. citizens and over 40 percent of CWA members who were not U.S. citizens said they had changed their activity online.

Individual union members reported refraining from posting, refraining from sharing union content, deleting posts, and deleting entire accounts in response to the ideological online surveillance program. Criticism of the Trump administration or its policies was the most common type of content respondents reported changing their social media activity around. Many members also reported altering their offline union activity in response to the program, including avoiding being publicly identified as part of the unions and reducing their participation in rallies and protests. One member even said they declined to report a wage theft claim due to fears arising from the surveillance program.

Represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Muslim Advocates (MA), and the Media Freedom & Information Access Clinic (MFIA), the UAW, CWA, and AFT seek to halt the program that affects thousands of their members individually and has harmed the ability of the unions to organize, represent, and recruit members. The lawsuit argues that the viewpoint-based online surveillance program violates the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act.

“The Trump administration’s use of surveillance to track and intimidate UAW members is a direct assault on the First Amendment—and an attack on every working person in this country,” said UAW President Shawn Fain. “When they spy on, silence, and fire union members for speaking out, they’re not just targeting individuals—they’re targeting the very idea of freedom itself. The right to protest, to organize, to speak without fear—that’s the foundation of American democracy. If they can come for UAW members at our worksites, they can come for any one of us tomorrow. And we will not stand by and let that happen.”

“Every worker should be alarmed by the Trump administration’s online surveillance program,” said CWA President Claude Cummings Jr. “The labor movement is built on our freedoms under the First Amendment to speak and assemble without fear retaliation by the government. The unconstitutional Challenged Surveillance Program threatens those freedoms and explicitly targets those who are critical of the administration and its policies. This policy interferes with CWA members’ ability to express their points of view online and organize to improve their working conditions.”

“Free speech is the foundation of democracy in America,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “The Trump administration has rejected that core constitutional right and now says only speech it agrees with is permitted—and that it will silence those who disagree. This suit exposes the online surveillance tools and other cyber tactics never envisioned by the founders to enforce compliance with the administration’s views. It details the direct harms on both the target of these attacks and the chilling effect on all those we represent and teach.”

“Using a variety of AI and automated tools, the government can now conduct viewpoint-based surveillance and analysis on a scale that was never possible with human review alone,” said EFF Staff Attorney Lisa Femia. “The scale of this spying is matched by an equally massive chilling effect on free speech.”

“The administration is hunting online for an ever-growing list of disfavored viewpoints,” said Golnaz Fakhimi, Legal Director of Muslim Advocates. “Its goal is clear: consolidate authoritarian power by crushing dissent, starting with noncitizens, but certainly not ending there. This urgent lawsuit aims to put a stop to this power grab and defend First Amendment freedoms crucial to a pluralistic and democratic society.”

“This case goes to the heart of the First Amendment,” said Anthony Cosentino, a student in the Media Freedom & Information Access Clinic. “The government can’t go after people for saying things it doesn’t like. The current administration has ignored that principle, developing a vast surveillance apparatus to find and punish people for their constitutionally protected speech. It is an extraordinary abuse of power, creating a climate of fear not seen in this country since the McCarthy era, especially on college campuses. Our laws and Constitution will not allow it.”

For the complaint: https://www.eff.org/document/uaw-v-dos-complaint

For more about the litigation: https://eff.org/cases/united-auto-workers-v-us-department-state

Contacts:
Electronic Frontier Foundation: press@eff.org
Muslim Advocates: golnaz@muslimadvocates.org