Sunday, October 26, 2008

Terrorist ‘tweets’? US Army warns of Twitter dangers

Neil Comment:
Social networking has become a important part of the Alternative Media's infrastructure and is therefore increasingly under attack. Expect to see more like this in the future. Also lookout for a i911 (internet 9/11, but without Al Qaeda) that leads to new international laws regarding the net. (iPatriotAct)

AFP

October 25, 2008

The report by the 304th Military Intelligence Battalion, posted on the website of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), examines a number of mobile and web technologies and their potential uses by militants.

The posting of the report on the FAS site was reported Friday by Wired magazine contributing editor Noah Shachtman on his national security blog “Danger Room” at wired.com.

The report is not based on clandestine reporting but drawn from open source intelligence known as OSINT.

A chapter on “Potential for Terrorist Use of Twitter” notes that Twitter members sent out messages, known as “Tweets,” reporting the July Los Angeles earthquake faster than news outlets and activists at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis used it to provide information on police movements.

“Twitter has also become a social activism tool for socialists, human rights groups, communists, vegetarians, anarchists, religious communities, atheists, political enthusiasts, hacktivists and others to communicate with each other and to send messages to broader audiences,” the report said.

(read full story)