Confirming that the use of Facebook and other social media sites in the Tunisian revolution “shocked” officials, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed that it intends to develop guidelines for how officials go about collecting intelligence from the sites.
“We’re still trying to figure out how you use things like Twitter as a source,” DHS Undersecretary Caryn Wagner conceded, insisting that the department doesn’t “actively monitor” sites like Twitter and Facebook but would look at them to corroborate information about any “potential threat.”
Analysts expressed surprise that the government wasn’t already doing this sort of thing, pointing out that private industry has been trying to collect useful information out of social networking sites for years and that Wagner’s comments suggested the DHS is just getting around to looking at it.
Though it seems unlikely that the intelligence community is going to find open talk of terror attacks, the use of social media to organize protests against pro-US dictatorships might provide the DHS with a heads up over which of their assorted tyrants are about to face turmoil.
""… the use of social media to organize protests against pro-US dictatorships might provide the DHS with a heads up over which of their assorted tyrants are about to face turmoil. ""
Since when did the security of other nations' leaders and regimes become the responsibility of the DHS- isn't the DHS supposed to be responsible for the security of the US? Might want to start getting domestic affairs in order (huge open borders, hint) before worrying about what others are doing.
DHS might not be doing it but be assured that NSA and CIA have been data mining just about every method of communication in the US for several years. They have found virtually nothing, but they are always hopeful that the conversation about an "impending wedding" will actually be code words for something more drastic. So far the best that has been accomplished is the FBI with their eleborate sting/entrapment program that cons people into something that would have been impossible without the money, equipment , and encouragement by government informants.
Isn't this why they're monitoring Antiwar.com? 😉