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Georgia GOP Rep. Hice says he will 'get to the bottom of' USPS spying program

"People need to know about this type of activity taking place, and now they need answers," the Georgia congressman said.

Published: April 29, 2021 11:45am

Updated: April 29, 2021 1:10pm

Georgia GOP Rep. Jody Hice said Thursday that he would "get to the bottom" of why the U.S. Postal Service has a covert operation to look at Americans' social media posts.

On Wednesday, USPS Chief Postal Inspector Gary Barksdale confirmed the agency's "Internet Covert Operations Program," in which analysts comb through the posts.

The program is said to assess threats on social media to prevent a domestic terror attack like the one at the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to Fox News.

Hice said on "Just The News AM" that he will use his position as the top Republican of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to get more information about the program.

"I can assure you that we are going to do all we can to try to get to the bottom of it and get some answers," he told show host Sophie Mann.  "And we will obviously make that public as that type of information is available."

The operation purportedly at Facebook, Twitter, and Parler for "inflammatory" posts.

Yahoo News reported one incident in which the postal service tracked the social media activity of those who went to COVID-19 and 5G protests, including members of the right-wing group Proud Boys.

"People need to know about this type of activity taking place, and now they need answers," Hice continued. "And we need answers quickly. We need to know whether or not this is even legal, what's taking place. So we're going to pursue this, I can assure you."

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