The Key Words the Government Monitors Online
A government manual obtained by a privacy watchdog group reveals that the Department of Homeland Security has compiled a list of hundreds of key words used to detect possible terrorist and other threats on social media sites.
A government manual obtained by a privacy watchdog group reveals that the Department of Homeland Security has compiled a list of hundreds of key words used to detect possible terrorist and other threats on social media sites. –ARK
Your support is crucial…The Huffington Post:
The 39-page “Analyst’s Desktop Binder” used by the department’s National Operations Center includes no-brainer words like “attack,” “epidemic” and “Al Qaeda” (with various spellings). But the list also includes words that can be interpreted as either menacing or innocent depending on the context, such as “exercise,” “drill,” “wave,” “initiative,” “relief” and “organization.”
These terms and others are “broad, vague and ambiguous” and include “vast amounts of First Amendment protected speech that is entirely unrelated to the Department of Homeland Security mission to protect the public against terrorism and disasters,” stated the Electronic Privacy Information Center in [a] letter to the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence.
The manual was released by the center a week after Homeland Security officials were grilled at a House hearing over other documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that revealed analysts were scrutinizing online comments that “reflect adversely” on the federal government. Mary Ellen Callahan, the chief privacy officer for the Department of Homeland Security, and Richard Chavez, director for the National Operations Center, testified that the released documents were outdated and that social media was monitored strictly to provide situational awareness and not to police disparaging opinions about the federal government. On Friday, Homeland Security officials stuck by that testimony.
With an uncertain future and a new administration casting doubt on press freedoms, the danger is clear: The truth is at risk.
Now is the time to give. Your tax-deductible support allows us to dig deeper, delivering fearless investigative reporting and analysis that exposes what’s really happening — without compromise.
Stand with our courageous journalists. Donate today to protect a free press, uphold democracy and unearth untold stories.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.