Government may use Facebook, Twitter for terror alerts

Hayley Tsukayama
Washington Post
April 8, 2011

The Department of Homeland Security is planning to tap social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to help spread the word in the event of a terror attack, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

In a draft of a plan obtained by AP, DHS says it may turn to social networks to spread news about new terror alerts “when appropriate,” after notifying local, state and federal officials.

The plan is expected to go into effect on April 27 and will replace the government’s current color-coded rubric with a two-tier warning system. “Elevated” alerts would be issued when there is a credible threat against the

United States. An “imminent alert” would indicated a credible, specific and impending terrorist threat or on-going attack. According to the draft, each warning would have an expiration date.

US spy operation that manipulates social media

Nick Fielding and Ian Cobain
The Guardian
March 17, 2011

The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.

A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, to develop what is described as an “online persona management service” that will allow one US serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities based all over the world.

The project has been likened by web experts to China’s attempts to control and restrict free speech on the internet. Critics are likely to complain that it will allow the US military to create a false consensus in online conversations, crowd out unwelcome opinions and smother commentaries or reports that do not correspond with its own objectives.

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