Twitter Surveillance

When he began listening to a voicemail and realized it was from an officer of the Portland Police Bureau, the Oregon Democratic Party field organizer and prolific tweeter’s first thought was that he’d been caught illegally streaming movies from his laptop.

He didn’t expect to be accused of threatening Nancy Pelosi, the current speaker of the United States House of Representatives who visited Portland Sept. 6 to fundraise for congressional candidates.

The reason the police called the tweeter, who posts under the account @MalcolmFLeX or “Biracial Angel” on Twitter, was over a tweet he’d sent 42 minutes before receiving the voicemail, that read:

“Nancy Pelosi in Portland rn time to shoot my shot.”

“This is stupid now but when I got the voicemail,” which he says came from a private number, “I fully thought it was because I pirated Jordan Peele’s Nope last week,” @MalcoImFLeX said in an interview with Eugene Weekly. “I recently got an email from Comcast telling me to fuck off and I fully expected it to be about that.”

What he thought was a relatively innocent tweet espousing his plans to ask the visiting dignitary on a date, turned out to be troubling enough to warrant a phone call from the PPB, becoming a reminder of how law enforcement uses social media and how easily it can grab their attention — even if you think you’re anonymous.

Through his non-work related @MalcoImFLeX Twitter account, he is a shitposter and troll in the classic sense. His tweets range from absurd to surrealistic and are often aimed at provoking the ire of those @MalcoImFLeX believes take the internet and its ensuing discourses far too seriously. His tweets traffic in the kind of post-irony humor that might leave those who aren’t terminally online scratching their heads — and that’s partially the point.

“Even after he said I made a tweet about Nancy Pelosi I still didn’t get how I fucked up,” @MalcoImFLeX said. “And then he said the tweet mentioned ‘shooting your shot.’ I quickly realized it looked like I was threatening a politician.”

PPB public information officer, Sgt. Kevin Allen, confirmed to EW in an email that a Sgt. Matt Jacobs did reach out to @MalcoImFLeX with a concern over the tweet’s meaning, but said he can’t provide specifics about how the police bureau investigates potential threats.

“When there is a specific event, such as the visit of a dignitary, officers assigned to our intelligence unit typically engage in a limited scan for posts that might indicate a threat and may complete a follow-up investigation depending on the circumstances,” Allen said. “But I do want to say that PPB does not ‘scour social media for threats.’”

According to @MalcoImFLeX , Jacobs asked how he knew Pelosi was going to be in Portland.

@MalcoImFLeX replied that he knew because of his job as a field organizer for the 1st congressional district at the Democratic Party of Oregon. Jacobs then told @MalcoImFLeX that he’d been at the event and that the police showed @MalcoImFLeX ’s DMV photo to organizers at the event, including his boss at the DPO

“Fortunately, my boss is on the younger side,” @MalcoImFLeX said. “He saw the tweet and was like ‘This is obviously a joke and not even a joke about hurting someone,’ so fortunately they were both very, very cool with it and just kind of laughed at me, which is fair because it’s ultimately pretty funny.”

@MalcoImFLeX told EW that the Portland police never asked him to delete the tweet in question, but that his boss recommended it.

“And I wasn’t about to argue,” @MalcoImFLeX said.

Representative for Pelosi did not respond to a request for comment on whether or not she’d accept a date with “Bi-Racial Angel.”

This story has been updated and is no longer using @MalcoImFLeX’s name as it has resulted in negative consequences in his worklife.

A Note From the Publisher

Dear Readers,

The last two years have been some of the hardest in Eugene Weekly’s 43 years. There were moments when keeping the paper alive felt uncertain. And yet, here we are — still publishing, still investigating, still showing up every week.

That’s because of you!

Not just because of financial support (though that matters enormously), but because of the emails, notes, conversations, encouragement and ideas you shared along the way. You reminded us why this paper exists and who it’s for.

Listening to readers has always been at the heart of Eugene Weekly. This year, that meant launching our popular weekly Activist Alert column, after many of you told us there was no single, reliable place to find information about rallies, meetings and ways to get involved. You asked. We responded.

We’ve also continued to deepen the coverage that sets Eugene Weekly apart, including our in-depth reporting on local real estate development through Bricks & Mortar — digging into what’s being built, who’s behind it and how those decisions shape our community.

And, of course, we’ve continued to bring you the stories and features many of you depend on: investigations and local government reporting, arts and culture coverage, sudoku and crossword puzzles, Savage Love, and our extensive community events calendar. We feature award-winning stories by University of Oregon student reporters getting real world journalism experience. All free. In print and online.

None of this happens by accident. It happens because readers step up and say: this matters.

As we head into a new year, please consider supporting Eugene Weekly if you’re able. Every dollar helps keep us digging, questioning, celebrating — and yes, occasionally annoying exactly the right people. We consider that a public service.

Thank you for standing with us!