ACLU: Police used Twitter, Facebook to track protests

A demonstrator is arrested during a protest marking the one-year anniversary of the shooting of Michael Brown along West Florrisant Street on Aug.10, 2015 in Ferguson, Mo. (Photo: Scott Olson, Getty Images) SAN FRANCISCO -- Police monitored and tracked protests in Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo., using data from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram provided by a Chicago company that analyzes social media for law enforcement, according to the ACLU. The data provided to police by Geofeedia included the locations of users. The ACLU said after it alerted the social media companies, Instagram cut off Geofeedia's access to public user posts and Facebook cut off its access to a topic-based stream of public user posts. Twitter suspended the company, Geofeedia, from receiving its commercial data, Twitter said in a tweet Tuesday. In an emailed statement, Facebook said Geofeedia had access to data that Facebook users make public.