New York City's democratic socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani appears to be heading towards his first collision course with the city's police after it was revealed that the force has been secretly using fake social media accounts to spy on targets online.
The covert practice, described by civil rights groups as the 'digital version of NYPD's well-documented infiltration of Muslim communities post-9/11', has sparked outrage among activists who are now urging the mayor to take action.
As a state legislator, Mamdani fought to ban such technologies, known as 'sock puppet' accounts for their deception.
Now, as the mayor in charge of the nation's largest police force, he's responsible for overseeing and disclosing specifics on surveillance technologies the NYPD uses to conduct investigations.
The controversy erupted last week when the police department quietly published long-mandated disclosures online, revealing for the first time that it has for years used sophisticated software from California firm NTREPID to create fictitious online personas to track down violent criminals and terrorists.
Mayor Mamdani punted on the issue when contacted by the Daily Mail.
'We are gathering more information about these tools and look forward to discussing them and their uses with the police department,' said Sam Raskin, a Mamdani spokesperson.
The highly sophisticated 'sock puppet' software was previously only known to be used by the US Department of Defense, enabling Central Command to secretly influence online conversations and spread pro-American propaganda overseas.
New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing his first major test in City Hall after a bombshell disclosure revealed the NYPD has been secretly using fake social media accounts to surveil targets online.
The NYPD quietly admitted to using covert online personas in a disclosure buried among dozens of documents posted with no public announcement.
While the actual contract wasn't shared, sources tell the Daily Mail the NYPD has a multi-million-dollar agreement with NTREPID and has been using the technology for years to infiltrate social media and engage with targets through fake identities that can't be traced back to the police department.
The NYPD kept the contract a closely guarded secret, even after the City Council passed the Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology (POST) Act in 2020 requiring it to disclose the surveillance programs.
The department has argued the technology allows them to root out terror plots and that such disclosures could hamper investigations.
But city legislators ratcheted up the POST Act in 2025 to require the department to name its vendors.
The department sent the disclosures to the city late last year, and they were posted last week on the city's website with no public announcement.
The name NTREPID is buried among 40 documents, listed once in a 10-page pdf titled 'Internet Attribution Management Infrastructure'.
'The NYPD uses internet attribution management infrastructure, including NTREPID, to manage digital footprints and allow its personnel to safely, securely, and covertly conduct investigations and detect possible criminal activity on the internet,' the NYPD document states.
'The types of equipment utilized by the NYPD for its internet attribution management infrastructure include computer servers, internet lines, switches, modems, and routers; virtual private networks; remote desktop software; desktop and laptop computers; tablets; smartphones from a variety of manufacturers,' it adds.
The Daily Mail can reveal that the NYPD quietly admitted to using covert online personas in a disclosure buried among dozens of documents posted with no public announcement last week.
Documents showed the force has been using a software, supplied by California firm NTREPID and previously associated with Pentagon and US military online influence operations overseas, to spy on targets online.
The release caught the eye of the Legal Aid Society of New York City and the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP), two civil rights organizations that have fought to prevent 'discriminatory' surveillance by law enforcement.
Both groups fought for the POST Act as well as state legislation seeking to ban police from leveraging fake social media accounts to surveil New Yorkers.
In 2023, then-Assembly member Mamdani sponsored the so-called Stop Fakes Act.
He co-authored a newspaper column that year blasting police for 'infiltration' of social media with phony accounts and used it to 'flag, surveil and arrest activists' around the country.
He argued that police have targeted black and brown youth, as well as teenagers based on 'out of context' social media posts.
The material then gets shared with prosecutors and used for massive gang sweeps that 'ruin young people's lives', the future mayor co-wrote in the column in City & State New York in June 2023.
Mamdani, 34, a longtime outspoken critic of the NYPD, has called the department 'racist' and a 'rogue agency,' though he has since apologized and softened his rhetoric.
While the department saw an exodus of cops in the months leading up to his mayoral win, he has largely avoided controversy by shifting his tone toward police and by maintaining the status quo, keeping Jessica Tisch as NYPD commissioner.
The revelations about police surveillance, however, could put this honeymoon period to the test.
Speaking exclusively with the Daily Mail, representatives from STOP and the Legal Aid Society said they were surprised by the news the NYPD uses advanced NTREPID technologies and now want Mamdani to follow through on his pre-mayoral campaign against so-called 'sock-puppet' technologies.
They also want the City Council to hold hearings on the new revelations.
'For years, STOP has fought for passage of the Stop Fakes Act to ban police use of fake social media accounts, a bill led by then Assembly member Mamdani,' William Owen, spokesman for STOP, told the Daily Mail Friday.
'As Mayor, Mamdani must continue rejecting NYPD's fake friend requests and fight back against social media surveillance.'
He described NTREPID as 'yet another one of these tools in NYPD's arsenal, bringing War on Terror surveillance tactics to New Yorkers' social media.'
'This is a digital version of NYPD's well-documented infiltration of Muslim communities post-9/11, and it must be stopped to protect New Yorkers' First Amendment rights,' he added.
The new disclosures expand on what is already known about the department's wide range of surveillance devices and technology, including the use of facial recognition software as well as portable devices that mimic cell phone towers to log data from phones.
There's also detail on the Domain Awareness System, an AI-driven network controlling more than 18,000 security cameras across the city.
And there's a new disclosure about the NYPD's contract with Voyager Labs, a social media monitoring firm that claims it can predict 'extremism'.
Responding to the Daily Mail's request for comment, the NYPD defended its use of NTREPID and related surveillance technologies.
'These are critical security and counter-terrorism tools we use to mitigate threats,'
a spokesman said. 'NYPD takes all appropriate steps to protect undercover accounts and our counterterrorism efforts.'
However, legal advocates have long argued that the department's lack of transparency and vast surveillance network makes it difficult to defend their clients or identify abuses.
The new disclosures have only raised levels of concern.
'Creating these fake social media profiles allows the NYPD to completely sidestep judicial process and enter private online spaces by deception, and get information that would typically require a warrant,'
Michelle Dahl, executive director of STOP, told the Daily Mail Friday.
'We cannot rely on the NYPD to monitor themselves,'
she continued. 'We need to push for accountability and to end their use of deceptive social media practices.'
Jerome Greco, digital forensic director for the Legal Aid Society, told the Daily Mail that one thing he's particularly concerned about is the NYPD's vague explanation for how it uses the technology.
The department states that programs 'may only be used by NYPD personnel for legitimate law enforcement purposes or other official business of the NYPD.'
'Such vague language undermines the purpose of the POST Act and allows the NYPD to continue hiding from public how it uses these tools,'
Greco said.
An NYPD source told the Daily Mail that such fears are unfounded.
'We don't use any of this technology to target any particular ethnic or religious group,'
the source said.
'You know who we're targeting? The people who want to kill New Yorkers.'
'These tools help us unearth potential terror plots not just at home but overseas too,'
the source continued.
'We've uncovered plots from here to England to Germany in past couple years because of this technology.'
'We're going to keep moving forward till maybe some crazy liberal leftist mayor decides to shut it down,'
the source added.