Overview
- WIRED obtained more than 1,000 pages of unpublished reports from the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and regional fusion centers that signal a new, nationally shared focus on “anti‑tech” or “anti‑technology” extremism.
- The documents instruct analysts to flag ordinary civic behavior—including photography, attending town halls and recording meetings—as potential indicators of suspicious activity that could relate to data‑center or AI opposition.
- Private open‑source intelligence firms such as SITE have circulated alerts that elevate online posts and nonviolent advocacy into law‑enforcement channels, and fusion centers have passed those signals up to regional and federal partners.
- Civil‑rights lawyers and experts say the indicators are broad and vague, and they warn these practices risk treating lawful protest and advocacy as precursors to violence and exposing activists to unnecessary surveillance or police action.
- The files link the surveillance push to recent White House directives and public counterterrorism guidance, and they could change how local civic protests over data centers and AI are policed and investigated going forward.