To help it judge whether to take specific threats online seriously, the U.S. Secret Service has offered a contract for analytics software that can be used “to detect sarcasm and false positives” on Twitter and other social media.

Yahoo News U.K. reports:

It will also collect everything from the emotions of internet users to old Twitter messages.

Ed Donovan, spokesman for the Secret Service, emphasised that detecting sarcasm is just one of the features of the proposed software.

He said: “Our objective is to automate our social media monitoring process.

“The ability to detect sarcasm and false positives is just one of 16 or 18 things we are looking at.

“We are looking for the ability to quantify our social media outreach. We aren’t looking solely to detect sarcasm.”

Read more here.

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.

WAIT, BEFORE YOU GO…

If you're reading this, you probably already know that non-profit, independent journalism is under threat worldwide. Independent news sites are overshadowed by larger heavily funded mainstream media that inundate us with hype and noise that barely scratch the surface. We believe that our readers deserve to know the full story. Truthdig writers bravely dig beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that tells you what’s really happening and who’s rolling up their sleeves to do something about it.

Like you, we believe a well-informed public that doesn’t have blind faith in the status quo can help change the world. Your contribution of as little as $5 monthly or $35 annually will make you a groundbreaking member and lays the foundation of our work.

SUPPORT TRUTHDIG