A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) propaganda video that featured Jay-Z’s music was hit with a copyright takedown request on X, and appears to have been hit with copyright violations on both Instagram and Facebook as well.
The video features footage of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents training and doing immigration raids set to Jay-Z’s 2003 song “Public Service Announcement,” which has recently been used in at least two DHS videos. DHS tweeted the video alongside the caption “Hunt Cartels. Save America. JOIN.ICE.GOV.” The original tweet, from August 10, has 2.9 million views on X; the video has been replaced with the message “This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner.”
DHS also posted the video on Instagram and Facebook. On both platforms, the video has stayed up but Jay-Z’s music has been removed, suggesting that it got hit with a copyright notice on those platforms too. On Instagram, where it has nearly a million views, a message that says “This audio is no longer available” plays if you try to unmute the video. The sound on the video has been removed on Facebook as well, but a quirk of the platform allowed me to check what the removed audio was by clicking the name of the “sound” in the bottom left corner of the Reel, which showed it was indeed Jay-Z’s “Public Service Announcement. A Facebook user ripped and reposted the video, which still has the sound, and can be found here at the time of publication.
Neither Meta nor X responded to a request for comment. The Recording Industry Association of America, which files a huge number of copyright takedown requests across the internet for major artists, declined to comment to 404 Media. DHS also did not respond to a request for comment. Jay-Z’s Roc Nation also did not respond to a request for comment.
In recent weeks, DHS officials and agents have heavily ratcheted up the number of videos they post to social media. Many of the videos are heavily edited sizzle reels from immigration raids set to rap music or songs like the “Bad Boys” theme and Johnny Cash’s “God’s Gonna Cut You Down.”
The footage is being used to recruit new ICE agents and to promote the cruelty of Trump’s immigration raids; a video posted by chief border patrol agent Gregory Bovino features Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass warning about the overreach of the federal government in LA and includes a remixed version of “Public Service Announcement” over first-person footage of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents doing an immigration raid Thursday at a Home Depot in Los Angeles. That particular raid may have violated a court injunction, experts have argued.
“The Call of Duty aesthetic is sickening,” Chris Gilliard, co-director of The Critical Internet Studies Institute and author of the forthcoming book Luxury Surveillance, told 404 Media.
404 Media reported last week that CBP agents have been wearing Meta’s AI camera glasses to at least two recent immigration raids in Los Angeles (it is unclear what cameras were used to film the footage used in either of the videos featuring Jay-Z music).
“CBP utilize Go Pros mounted to helmets or body armor at times, as well as traditional DSLR handheld cameras,” a CBP spokesperson told 404 Media when we asked about its agents wearing Meta AI glasses. The spokesperson added “CBP does not have an arrangement with Meta. The use of personal recording devices is not authorized. However, Border Patrol agents may wear personally purchased sunglasses.”
DHS has also allowed Fox News reporters to embed with and film agents on raids, and footage from these raids shows DHS agents with DSLR cameras running alongside each other to capture footage. It is clearly important to this administration to capture and widely publicize this footage, which often emphasizes agents grabbing people who are running away from them.
The copyright takedown is notable because it shows DHS is not getting permission from artists to use their music in these propaganda videos, which are being used to recruit ICE agents in the immediate aftermath of a huge funding increase. As we reported earlier this month, ICE is trying to do a social media advertising blitz with part of this new funding, and is looking to plaster ads on social media, TV, and streaming sites. Despite this cash injection, early reports suggest that ICE is having trouble finding people to work for it.
