Twitter reportedly bars US intelligence agencies from service that mines posts for terrorism alerts
A service that mined tweets to quickly alert U.S. intelligence agencies about the terrorist attacks in Brussels and Paris won’t be providing that kind of information in the future.
Twitter cut off intelligence agencies’ access to the terrorism-alert service provided by Dataminr Inc., apparently because of concerns the social media company would appear to be too close to the agencies, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports. The story is based on anonymous sources.
Dataminr had reportedly provided the intelligence agencies with alerts of terrorist attacks, political unrest and other important events.
Dataminr continues to provide its breaking-news-alert service to the Department of Homeland Security, however. The company also continues to provide services to news publications, the financial industry and other private enterprise. Twitter owns about a 5 percent stake in Dataminr.
“Dataminr uses public Tweets to sell breaking news alerts to media organizations such as ABC News and government agencies such as the World Health Organization, for non-surveillance purposes,” a spokesman for Twitter told ABC News. “We have never authorized Dataminr or any third party to sell data to a government or intelligence agency for surveillance purposes. This is a longstanding policy, not a new development.”
Michael Smith II, CEO of the security consulting firm Kronos Advisory, told the Wall Street Journal that the cutoff could have “grave consequences.” ISIS supporters post on Twitter, and analysis of those posts are “a crucial tool for counterterrorism practitioners working to manage threats,” he said.
Missing word in first paragraph added on May 23.
