Telling the Feds About Your Lunch
Law enforcement is now looking at your social media posts
News is coming out now that Homeland Security is beginning to actively scan social media for patterns that may warn of another January 6th-like event. Although scanning publicly available social media information is not a new pursuit of the agency, the latest initiative seems to elicit two reactions. Some see it as a potentially reasonable step, given what we know about domestic terrorists and hate groups and their use of social media. Others argue that this is some slippery slope toward an Orwellian future of government monitoring.
Let’s look at what we know.
We’ve Seen This Movie Before
First, this technique is the same sort of basic measure taken to track down the radicalization efforts of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) (and others). Sure, ISIL is not a domestic (American) group, but many of the social media companies involved are. Likewise, it is silly to think that no Americans were on the same forums and platforms as members and prospects of ISIL. In other words, it’s not a new way of gathering information…
