In July of 2016, following a series of high-profile police shootings, Black Lives Matter protests erupted in cities all over the country. Some local police departments, ostensibly fearing for the safety of both protestors and officers, reached out to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for help in monitoring upcoming demonstrations. According to documents recently obtained by MuckRock, the FBI provided assistance in the form of social media surveillance and on the ground threat monitoring.

In this Week’s FOIA Roundup, documents show the Department of Homeland Security officials’ baseless concern that Black Lives Matter activists would join ISIS following Ferguson protests, Pentagon damage assessments on the 2012 WikiLeaks revelations spurred by Chelsea Manning are finally available after FOIA lawsuit and a public records request from Carbondale, Illinois undermines the mayor’s account of domestic disturbance.

New documents released by Amtrak in response to a FOIA request shed more light on the 2017 panic and stampede at New York’s Penn Station that injured at least 16 people. While several eyewitnesses claimed panic was as a result of a police Taser being mistaken for gunfire, the officer who discharged the weapon blamed the incident on a mystery bystander yelling “ISIS ATTACK.”

Brian Sparks’ FOIA request for the FBI’s file on an American anarchist killed while fighting the Islamic State was rejected on grounds that it was part of “pending or prospective law enforcement proceeding,” or the “open investigation” exemption. What that investigation is is anyone’s guess.

Terrorism analysts have noted how savvy the Islamic State is on social media. The White House and think tanks alike point to Twitter support for ISIS as a key metric for the group’s strength. Similar worries once swirled around MySpace and Second Life as platforms for recruiting homegrown jihadists.