Hootsuite Takes Heat For Collaborating With ICE

Again.

Photo by Jun Ohashi on Unsplash

The late comedian W.C. Fields once said: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.” While this might not be the healthiest approach to life, it’s good advice if you’ve twice sparked public outrage for trying to profit off a paramilitary death squad that enjoys kidnapping children.

Hootsuite, a Vancouver-based social media management company used by most Fortune 500 companies, was forced to bail on taking ICE as a new client six years ago after a staffer called them out on Twitter for being on the wrong side of history. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, you might be familiar with Hootsuite’s owl mascot or the URL link shortener “‘ow.ly” you see flying around on various platforms.

Here’s what then-CEO Tom Keiser had to say about the important lesson he learned that it’s bad to be caught making money from other people’s misery:

We have heard the lived experiences from our people and the hurt they are feeling. The decision has created a divided company, and this is not the kind of company I came to lead. I — and the rest of the management team — share the concerns our people have expressed. As a result, we have decided not to proceed with the deal with ICE.

But there’s a new sheriff in town and Keiser’s successor at the top of the roost, Irina Novoselsky, calls all this fuss “fake news.” Which we know because some of the employees remaining after 20 percent of the workforce were let go a few months ago learned an important life lesson of their own after their whistleblowing colleague was shown the door shortly afterward for alleged performance reasons. One of them even had the bright idea to leak to the newspaper instead of social media.

The Globe & Mail reported on the $95,000 pilot project signed with ICE in September after someone passed along in-house documents, and government contractor Seneca Strategic Partners — the business arm of the Seneca Nation in New York — also has a $2.8-million contract with the Department of Homeland Security to use Hootsuite’s services for gems like this:

It sucks the Seneca are copacetic with all this but, if anyone gets a pass for being a dick about immigration, it’s Turtle Island’s original residents. A follow-up story on the internal damage control efforts also included leaked audio from a recent all-hands-on-deck conference call:

Ms. Novoselsky acknowledged on the internal call Thursday that Hootsuite has a contract with ICE but also referred to recent media coverage as “fake news,” containing “factual errors” and “misinformation.” Asked by an employee to elaborate, another company official said Hootsuite’s software cannot be used to track or identify the specific location of individuals, though it can surface high-level geographic information tied to content.

The Globe did not report that ICE was using Hootsuite’s software to track individuals. Instead, The Globe reported that Hootsuite employees discussed adding geolocation data down to the “street level” during a conference call with a [Customs and Border Protection] employee in October. The Globe also reported that an employee had posted a list of questions about Hootsuite’s contract with ICE on a company Slack channel, including how the company would ensure that the agency does not violate terms of service by tracking individuals and groups.

It’s worth mentioning Hootsuite is a very different beast than it was six years ago after it acquired something called Talkwalker, an AI-powered “social listening” platform created in Luxembourg. Put simply: Hootsuite has always offered the option to talk to a wide audience online (posting, scheduling, etc.) but Talkwalker is the new tool used to find out what people are saying about you more thoroughly than the free Google Alerts normal people make do with.

On the plus side, they’re at least in a unique position to know first-hand just how much this is pissing decent people off and might be shamed into changing course again. (A rainy protest outside their Mount Pleasant HQ was scheduled last Friday after this post was written.) ICE may pinky swear they’ll never use the tech for nefarious purposes but let’s be real. It’s not hard to imagine a scenario where, say, a teenaged girl hiding with her family in an attic somewhere might accidentally reveal the location with a TikTok video about how she longs to see open skies again.

Morgan Freeman demonstrates unpatented social listening technology used to track domestic terrorists. (Photo: Warner Bros.)

You might be wondering what sort of person would be OK with banking Benjamins from targeting immigrants who came to America in search of a better life. Funny story: She’s the daughter of immigrants who came to America in search of a better life! Here’s Hootsuite’s latest CEO in her own words on her LinkedIn bio:

I arrived in America as a refugee. My parents left Ukraine with just $270 in their pocket, sacrificing accomplished careers to start over in their 50s.

I spent 10 years of my career on Wall Street:

• A winner-take-all environment.

• Muted colors to blend into the corporate uniform.

• Hiding my personality to avoid standing out.

Wearing red? Out of the question.

It wasn’t until I stepped into leadership that I found the courage to show up as my true self.

The same courage my parents showed when they came to America…

Now, as the CEO of Hootsuite, I’m proud to lead a company that empowers others (our Owls) to thrive while being themselves.

She goes on to boast about her sales team and drops names like Adobe, IKEA, and the World Health Organization as clients before ending on a weird note: “P.S. I’m wearing red as I type this.”

Irina Novoselsky would rather be wearing red. (LinkedIn)

I’ve no idea why wearing red is such a big deal for her but let’s hope she means a sensible pantsuit or maybe sexy lingerie and not a MAGA baseball hat or an overly long tie, eh.

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[CBC / Business in Vancouver / Globe & Mail / Wonkette Bluesky]

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