Boston Police to Begin Monitoring Social Media Content for Terrorist Threats
Boston Police to Begin Monitoring Social Media Content for Terrorist Threats
The Boston Police Department (BPD) announced recently that it will be purchasing software that will allow it to scan content in blogs, forums, websites, and comment areas such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. The software will send alerts to law enforcement officials when content filters are triggered, providing them with the ability to identify and track the violator. The technology, already in use by agencies in other metropolitan areas, also allows officials to create virtual accounts to follow members of social sites.
Though the software will be able to scan content worldwide, the emphasis, officials stressed, will be combating terrorism in Boston and the surrounding region. BPD hasn’t chosen which platform it will use, but has set aside $1.4 million for the purchase.
The decision has been criticized by several groups promoting civil liberties (using the Twitter hashtag: #noBPDspying), including the Massachusetts chapter of the ACLU and Digital4, a national organization which promotes privacy causes. Representatives and concerned citizens packed a City Council meeting to protest the BPD action, accusing the agency’s Boston Regional Intelligence Center of racial profiling during the 2014 Boston Marathon. Other groups pointed out that the software could be misused to track protesters or criminal threats based on their activity on social media.
As Boston residents await the announcement of which vendor gets the contract, there is still time for more public discussion about what content will be filtered and what action will be taken when the filters are triggered.
