FBI Grills Americans About Social Media Posts “Every Day, All Day Long”

​A video depicting a recent interaction between an Oklahoma woman and three FBI agents has become a Rashomon-style meditation on the power of perception, with advocates and activists from across the ideological spectrum drawing their own object lessons from it. Review the video and you will see that the underlying issue at hand is fundamentally about the speech rights of an American citizen.
 
Here are the facts: Early in the morning of March 19, Rolla Abdeljawad of Stillwater, Oklahoma, answered her front door to find three FBI agents. Their purpose: To discuss some of the Egyptian-American’s Facebook posts. Abdeljawad is critical of Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip. According to Washington Post, she regularly refers to Israel as “Isra-hell” and calls the Israeli Defense Forces “terrorist filth.” What she has not done is advocate for violence. You may find her posts unfair, but they do not rise to the level of a First Amendment exception, such as a true threat.
 
Abdeljawad proved herself savvy regarding her civil rights. She recorded her interaction with the FBI agents, in which they can be heard claiming that Facebook “gave us a couple of screenshots of your account.” 
 
"So we no longer live in a free country, and we can't say what we want?" Abdeljawad responded.
 
“No, we totally do. That's why we're not here to arrest you or anything," replied another agent. “We do this every day, all day long. It's just an effort to keep everybody safe and make sure nobody has any ill will.” (Emphasis added.)
 
The implication here is that the FBI undertakes door-knocking expeditions “every day, all day long” to grill civilians about their protected speech online so no one has “ill will.” If someone is not calling for violence, as is the case here, there is no reason for a visit from the FBI. After all, such a visit by armed agents will never be taken as a benign consultation. It can’t help but have a chilling effect on speech.
 
According to a report from Reason, “Meta's official policy is to hand over Facebook data to U.S. law enforcement in response to a court order, a subpoena, a search warrant, or an emergency situation involving ‘imminent harm to a child or risk of death or serious physical injury to any person.’” Clearly, judging from Abdeljawad’s encounter with the FBI, that policy can be misconstrued or ignored entirely. Law enforcement should never be harassing rank-and-file citizens over protected speech.
 
Abdeljawad’s lawyer, Hassan Shibly, posted the video of the interaction across platforms with some good advice for others who may find themselves with unwanted visitors with FBI badges and spurious questions:
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• First, do not invite the agents into your house.

 

• Second, record the interaction.

 

• And third, refuse to answer questions without a lawyer.

 
Americans should not accept as routine government agents coming to our homes to question us about opinions they find abrasive. There is no federal bureau of civil discourse, nor should there be in a First Amendment society.