Thoughtcrime

FBI Seeks Social Media X-Ray Machine

By Leslie Walker

 

Uncle Sam's top cops want a new app for peering into social media to see what people are saying that might involve illegal activity or pose threats to national security.

©Mark Wiens/ Getty Images

The FBI put out a request for information this month as part of market research for its proposed new "social media application" project, to see if the information technology industry actually has the capability to build what it wants. Responses from technology companies and other potential vendors are due by Feb. 10.

Privacy advocates generally oppose government monitoring of social media, but so much social media chatter is already public that it won't be easy to stop development of the analytical app the FBI wants. PC World called it a "social network spy app."

The CIA already routinely monitors social media for global threats, as NPR reported in a story last week when it took a closer look at the CIA's Open Source Center for foreign intelligence. Analysts at the center, reportedly is housed in an office building in McLean, Va., told the visiting reporter they consider themselves "ninja libarians."

The FBI's information request document describes its project as an "open source and social media alert, mapping and analysis application." The social media monitoring feature would be part of a broader electronic surveillance and analytical system the FBI is developing, which includes extensive geo-location and mapping features.

Goals of the social media monitoring app, the FBI document states, would include:

• "detecting potential threats"
• "developing threat profiles"
• "outline possible courses-of-action
• "determine time frame for action by bad actors"
• "identify and develop tactical picture of the location for threat events"
• "develop intelligence products for counter-measures"

In its document, the FBI stated that social media already is a "valued source of information" to its intelligence teams. "Social media has become a primary source of intelligence," the document said, " because it has become the premier first response to key events and the primal alert to possible developing situations."

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