How many of WM posters made Big Sis' list?

H

Horn6721

Hook'em
from LinkThe Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been paying a defense contractor $11.4 million to monitor social media websites and other Internet communications to find criticisms of the department’s policies and actions.



A government watchdog organization, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), obtained hundreds of documents from DHS through the Freedom of Information Act and found details of the arrangement with General Dynamics. The company was contracted to monitor the Web for “reports that reflect adversely on DHS,” including sub-agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Citizenship and Immigration Services, Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Link

11.1 million to learn I and othrs of my ilk think DHS sucks?
I would have told them for free
 
mcbrett
You don't know how relieved I am to read that.

One wonders what Big Sis considers "adverse" comments ordinary Americans could make.

Yep this is the most transparent admin evah
 
As Billy the Kid said in Young Guns, and woulda said to DHS "Hey, Colonel Shithead. You can kiss my ***."

I posted this in a thread a while back. It's getting ridiculous.

"The Pentagon is looking to build a tool to sniff out social media propaganda campaigns and spit some counter-spin right back at it."

"On Thursday, Defense Department extreme technology arm Darpa unveiled its Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC) program. It’s an attempt to get better at both detecting and conducting propaganda campaigns on social media. SMISC has two goals. First, the program needs to help the military better understand what’s going on in social media in real time — particularly in areas where troops are deployed. Second, Darpa wants SMISC to help the military play the social media propaganda game itself."

"This is more than just checking the trending topics on Twitter. The Defense Department wants to deeply grok social media dynamics. So SMISC algorithms will be aimed at discovering and tracking the “formation, development and spread of ideas and concepts (memes)” on social media, according to Darpa’s announcement."

"SMISC needs to be able to seek out “persuasion campaign structures and influence operations” developing across the social sphere. SMISC is supposed to quickly flag rumors and emerging themes on social media, figure out who’s behind it and what. Moreover, Darpa wants SMISC to be able to actually figure out whether this is a random product of the hivemind or a propaganda operation by an adversary nation or group."

"Of course, SMISC won’t be content to just to hang back and monitor social media trends in strategic locations. It’s about building a better spin machine for Uncle Sam, too. Once SMISC’s latches on to an influence operation being launched, it’s supposed to help out in “countermessaging.”"

"SMISC is yet another example of how the military is becoming very interested in what’s going on in the social media sphere."

Indeed, as I wrote in February:

I noted in 2009, in an article entitled “Does The Government Manipulate Social Media?”:

The U.S. government long ago announced its intention to “fight the net”.

As revealed by an official Pentagon report signed by Rumsfeld called “Information Operations Roadmap”:

The roadmap [contains an] acknowledgement that information put out as part of the military’s psychological operations, or Psyops, is finding its way onto the computer and television screens of ordinary Americans.



“Information intended for foreign audiences, including public diplomacy and Psyops, is increasingly consumed by our domestic audience,” it reads.



“Psyops messages will often be replayed by the news media for much larger audiences, including the American public,” it goes on.

“Strategy should be based on the premise that the Department [of Defense] will ‘fight the net’ as it would an enemy weapons system”.
 
Wow, that's a little unnerving.

It's interesting that the liberals on the board don't seem to mind the 1984-like government surveillance. Sometimes I think that the left is working towards a Borg-like (Star Trek) collective consciousness.
 
Well, I don't even know what the hell the verb "grok" means. As far as military propoganda, that was Dr. Suess's first writing assignment. It's been around a while and if we're going to have it, it needs to do its best to keep up with the times. Were I to find convincing evidence the government was going after free speech or building a database to use for political purposes, I'd be concerned.
 
Let me at least go on record then as saying:
The Department of Homeland Security is unnecessary and a waste of tax payers dollars.
Also Janet Napolitano is as worthless as a piece of dog **** in an ice cream cone.

And if DHS is reading this right now, just imagine me waiving my middle finger in your face.
 
Crockett?So Big Sis is spending 11.1 million of our money to have a company monitor our comments on social media and other web outlets for " reports that refelect adversely" on Big Sis and DHS
and that doesn't concern you?
Do you think she is only getting the comments and not the name of the commenter?

WTF does DHS care what people are saying on Facebook etc? WHY does DHS want this information?? ANYONE? why

Ever heard of free speech or as Hillary put it
"We should stand up and say we are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration."

I guess BO doesn't agree with Hillary.
 
It is amazing that educated members of our society look the other way when it comes to stuff like this. Do people not study history?

These things are generally incremental. It's not like the government is going to come out and say, "sure, we're monitoring those that disagree with us so that we can do X and Y".

Even if you ignore sinister, Big Brother conspiracy theories, it doesn't stop the fact that future players in the government won't use it in a political sense or worse.

The bottom line is that it, once again, increases the government's power over the individual. I don't understand how intelligent people can ignore stuff like this.
 
If the purposes are political it's wrong. But if the purposes are information-gathering in a broader intelligence sense -- say if general citizens are communicating ways to get around screenings, game the system, the latest profiling, etc. it could be useful intelligence. Maybe they would even learn a thing or two that could make their operations better. Heck, lots of companies spend vast amounts on cultural anthropology and maybe using the social networks is cheaper and faster. When Republicans take power and someone knocks on my door and wonder what hidden agenda I have for making fun of what a doofus Rick Perry is when he has an important job in the next administration, then I'll be REALLY worried.
 
Crockett You seem to be trying hard to excuse anything Bo and his mionions do.
here , maybe you prefer this:Huffpo's report on this creepy spying
The Link
"In a rare show of bipartisan agreement, members of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence held up a report by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) as they questioned the chief privacy officer of the Department of Homeland Security. The hearing, titled
"DHS Monitoring of Social Networking and Media: Enhancing Intelligence Gathering and Ensuring Privacy," relied heavily on talking points from a recent EPIC report on nearly 3,000 pages of documents it obtained under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The records detail DHS' online monitoring activities and include instructions to General Dynamics, the private company tasked with trolling the Internet for the agency to analyze comments on DHS or other parts of the federal government.
and
"The intention, it said, was to "capture public reaction to major government proposals" by DHS as well as "positive and negative reports" on FEMA, the CIA and other federal agencies."
end of quotes

yea that sounds like they are looking for nefarious activity.

Comments? so saying things that adversely report on DHS and any part of the gov't gets you reported by General Dynamics.
If Bush had done this I would be even angrier.This is a step further than warrantless wiretapping.
rolleyes.gif
 
To be sure I'll not cheerfully countenance "anything Bo and his minons do." and I think I've been clear that initelligence gathering, macro level looks at cultural anthorpology etc., and frankly just keeping up with how much of what they do is in the pulbic domain is a good government use of the social media. The government should keep abreast of world-changing technology and use it to prevent danger and enhance our position internationally. I give no carte blanche for political, ditry tricks, intelligence gathering on average citizens, etc. Congress should monitor and we have mechanisms to protect individual liberty -- maybe now more than ever before. To tell the US military and Homeland Security "hands off" from all research into social media would be the kind of heavy handed stupidity that should be left to radio talk show hosts.
 
while this has nefarious possibilities written all over it, I'm as equally angry that I didn't think of starting a private company, charging the govt. some wild amount of money to monitor what social networks are saying about "---" and "---".

Maybe I accidentally put on a tinfoil hat this morning, but I find it quite convenient that the DHS has this program up and running just at the right time to make the President's gameplan for re-election strategy more efficient. But, I'm confident that Napolitano won't ever consider letting the White House staff see any of the collected data during a re-election campaign
rolleyes.gif
 
If the left bulldozes the division of church and state, no problem.

If the left infringes on personal liberty, it does so for good reason.

We're screwed.
 
Crockett?
Really?
what part of this ( from Huufpo artilce
"The intention, it said, was to "capture public reaction to major government proposals" by DHS as well as "positive and negative reports" on FEMA, the CIA and other federal agencies." is
as you put it, "The government should keep abreast of world-changing technology and use it to prevent danger and enhance our position internationally"

How is this 'intelligence gathering" so know Dheiman and ofthers of his 'ILK" ( sorry dh
biggrin.gif
) this the DHS sucks and should be defunded? That certainly is an adverse remark.

Maybe you haven't actually read either aticle explaining what Big sis did with out money.
 
No problem Horn, I will wear my name on their list as a badge of honor before being sent to a tax payer funded concentration camp.
 
Horn6721, as both you and the Huffpo article have done, I've taken a little bit of information and speculated a lot. There are a lot of good reasons to do research on the social media and I'm hopeful we have bureacrats who will behave appropriately. I do believe there are smart, well-intentioned people in government now as there have been in every administration since the founding of the Republic. Inappropriate use should face strong discipline from Congress, the media and the American people.
 
Commrades, commrades, please calm down! Dees is all good for you, no? Vee vant to protect you. Vee know its good for you.

Signed,
Joseph Stalin
 
Once created, the main purpose of any bureaucracy is to ensure its own survival. DHS has been a waste of taxpayer money since Bush signed its existence into law.
 
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