FBI Reverting to 'J. Edgar Hoover Days,' Expert Says

The FBI reportedly has been collecting private messages between Facebook users sent to the bureau by the social media app after monitors there deemed the exchanges to be anti-government in nature – a startling allegation that, along with some of the agency's other recent misadventures, indicates the FBI could be repeating some of the sins of its darkest days, a constitutional expert told Newsmax.

A source told the New York Post that the coordination between Facebook and the FBI "was done outside the legal process and without probable cause," adding that "Facebook provides the FBI with private conversations which are protected by the First Amendment without any subpoena."