FBI interrogates Americans over social media posts 'every day, all day long,' agent says
FBI agents told an Oklahoma woman that the agency spends “every day, all day long” questioning people about their social media posts when they arrived at her house to ask about posts she made online.
Rolla Abdeljawad, of Stillwater, was told by FBI agents who showed up at her home on Wednesday that Facebook had handed over screenshots of her posts.
Abdeljawad told the agents she did not want to talk and asked them to show their badges on camera, but the agents refused, video posted to the social media platform X by her lawyer, Hassan Shibly, shows. The woman wrote on Facebook that she later confirmed with local police that the people who showed up at her home were actually FBI agents.
“Facebook gave us a couple of screenshots of your account,” one agent wearing a gray shirt was heard saying in the video.
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Abdeljawad replied, “So we no longer live in a free country, and we can’t say what we want?”
“No, we totally do,” another agent wearing a red shirt said. “That’s why we’re not here to arrest you or anything. 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.”
The woman then said, “All I’ve done is exercise my right as an American citizen on a public social media platform with my personal opinions.”
It is unclear which posts caught the attention of the FBI, but Abdeljawad has made a series of posts in the past week expressing frustration about the ongoing war in Gaza between Israeli forces and Hamas terrorists, including referring to Israel as “Israhell.”
“Israhelli terrorist filth,” she said in one post. “They think Ramadan is a weakness for Muslims not, realizing Ramadan is the strength. #FreePalestine May Allah destroy every single despicable zionist, their supporters and backers. Ameen.”
Abdeljawad’s Facebook timeline is also public, meaning the FBI agents could have accessed her posts themselves without requesting screenshots from Facebook.
One of her posts even warned the Muslim community and people who are pro-Palestinian to be wary of the U.S. government monitoring their activity.
“Don’t fall for their games. Our community is being watched & they are just waiting for any reason to round us up,” Abdeljawad wrote on March 24. “If you’re Muslim and/or pro-pal consider all your media accounts, Google searches, mail, messenger, local mosques & political events monitored. #NYC #usa #PoliceState #FreePalestine”
The official policy of Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is to give law enforcement Facebook data following a court order, subpoena, search warrant or emergency situation involving “imminent harm to a child or risk of death or serious physical injury to any person.”
In the first half of 2023, the social media giant received nearly 74,000 requests from law enforcement and handed over data 88% of the time, according to Meta’s website.
Abdeljawad said in a post on Thursday that her lawyer does not believe Facebook sent the FBI the screenshots of her posts.
“Rather, it seems like a fishing expedition,” she wrote. “I do not fear them. My only concern as, I told the cop is that, someone in my state will do something or that they would and then use my posts in a malicious attempt to ‘smear’ me. Just *remember, I am a Muslim, an obligated protector of creation. I enjoin what is good and forbid what is wrong.”
Shibly said in the caption on the social media video that Abdeljawad made the correct decision to refuse to speak without a lawyer, to not allow them in her house and to record the interaction. But, he says, she should not have gone outside her house to talk to the agents.
“You have the right never to speak to the FBI without a lawyer,” he said.
