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Imagine a place where people can go to learn agriculture and maybe plant science (imagine if each town or city had its own special hybrids or cultivars...); a place where the food grown is managed by and distributed freely to the community; a place that is owned by the community itself and not some private corporation.

It would help with affordability and, in some places, food scarcity.

It would also be great if towns and cities planted food-bearing trees and shrubbery in parks instead of ornamental junk (and, of course, did not spray them with poison). Imagine being able to just pick a handful of raspberries at the park.

In 2020, thousands of people stood up to tell Hootsuite their tech should not be used for mass surveillance. After an internal revolt and massive public pressure, Hootsuite listened—they cancelled their contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).1

Fast forward to 2026, and a massively expanded ICE agency is clearly out of control. Masked unidentified agents in Minneapolis are arbitrarily detaining U.S. citizens; demanding proof of citizenship from non-white people in the street; and have even murdered two people in cold blood: Veteran affairs nurse Alex Pretti, and poet and mother Renee Good.2,3,4,5,6

And yet new reports show that Vancouver, Canada based Hootsuite is back in business with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

A multi-year contract worth up to $2.8 million USD reveals that Hootsuite is now providing social media monitoring and "social listening" tools to the DHS—the parent agency of ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).7,8 And that’s just a start; Hootsuite has called this their “trojan horse”, the start to billions of dollars of expanded contracting!9

Tell Hootsuite to drop ICE!

Hootsuite claims that their services will be used only for so-called “social listening”; relaying overall impressions of what people online are saying about ICE and DHS, not surveilling individual activists. Does that sound like something you spend a billion dollars for? And does anyone trust ICE to adhere to the terms and services of Hootsuite’s social surveillance software? 

Unbelievably, Hootsuite is doing this while supposed to be a “B Corp”; a corporation legally and ethically committed to prioritizing social and environmental impact.10 But providing "social listening" software to an agency that no longer respects the law isn't a benign marketing service. It’s a choice to prioritize millions of dollars over basic human rights.

We need to show Hootsuite that their customers and the public are watching, and they’ll pay a stiff cost if they go ahead. It only takes 30 seconds to send an email to their CEO demanding they walk away from this contract for good.

Email Hootsuite now!

There’s so much we can’t do to make the world better right now. But we can do this. Please join me in demanding Hootsuite back off.

For democracy and human rights,

Matt at OpenMedia

Sources

Hootsuite initially agreed to ICE deal before pulling out, documents reveal – Betakit

‘This is what fascism looks like’: terror in Minneapolis reminiscent of civil war – The Guardian

How We Determined That Minneapolis Videos Contradicted Federal Officials – The New York Times

Thousands of demonstrators demand ICE leave Minneapolis – CBC

Honor Pretti and Good. End the Occupation. – The Bulwark

Who was Renee Nicole Good, the woman killed by ICE? – BBC

Hootsuite CEO says ICE contract will stand as long as agency honours terms and conditions – The Globe and Mail

Hootsuite providing services to Homeland Security agency years after ICE reversal – Business Intelligence for B.C.

Vancouver social-media company Hootsuite looking to work with ICE to ‘build trust’ – The Globe and Mail