EPIC, Coalition Urge Congress to Eliminate Funding for Failed “Countering Violent Extremism” Program

April 27, 2023

In a letter to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, EPIC and a coalition of 40 advocacy groups called on Congress to stop funding DHS’s Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grants Program and to shutter the DHS Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3) administering the program. The letter states, “First started in the Obama Administration as countering violent extremism, the TVTP program has a long history of targeting Americans based on religion, mental health, political beliefs, and innocuous behavior. These programs are wasteful, providing no security benefits and actively undermining civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy.”

EPIC works to uncover and roll back harmful surveillance practices. In 2020, EPIC obtained documents through the FOIA on a countering violent extremist meeting held in 2016 where high-ranking intelligence officials pressured tech companies to weaken encrypted messaging. Last year in comments to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), EPIC highlighted the bias inherent in the intelligence community’s “racially motivated violent extremism” label which has been used to group together white supremacist groups and racial justice protesters.

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