Federal agents tend to focus their phone cracking efforts on terrorists, but they appear to have shifted their attention to civil disobedience. NYR Daily has learned that the FBI sent its “Fly Team” counterterrorism unit to Portland in mid-July to conduct the “initial exploitation” of phones and other devices used by people protesting police racism and violence. The email revealing the plan, from now-retired special agent George Chamberlain, also asked for help with the “investigative follow up.”

There’s a concern that the FBI may have been pushing the limits of its device search powers in the process. Fly Team co-creator Raymond

Twitter said the deleted accounts had very low engagement and didn’t make an impact on public conversation, because it was able to identify them quickly. It also shared full details about them with other social networks. The company promises to publish more information about the deleted accounts and their content after it’s done with its investigation.

We identified these accounts quickly, removed them from Twitter, and shared full details with our peers, as standard. They had very low engagement and did not make an impact on the public conversation. Our capacity and speed continue to grow, and we'll remain vigilant.