Digital Crosstalk

Twitter: Micro-blogging application or terrorist tool?

Posted by Brian | Filed under blogging

You may be familiar with Twitter, the free social networking and micro-blogging application. Maybe you’ve used the tool to keep in touch with friends, let everyone know what you’re doing, or perhaps plan a Jihad.

Surprised by that last one? Most of us probably hadn’t thought of using twitter for such purposes, but then most of us aren’t the US army. According to a recent report written by the army’s 304th Military Intelligence Battalion which can be found on the Federation of American Scientist’s website, Twitter could in fact be used with mobile devices for ‘rapid-fire’ social interaction. Well it doesn’t take a rocket scientist… oh wait.

The report examines several pro-al-Qaeda websites and forums which discuss how modern technology could be used for militant purposes. Discussions on these forums range from the not-so-technical suggestion of using Skype to call each other, to discussing actual phone models such as the Nokia 6210 Navigator and how the GPS system could be used for “marksmanship, border crossings, and in concealment of supplies”.

Of course, most of us non-terrorists would think that using Skype to call people, even a terrorist, wasn’t very radical, but then again we aren’t the researching geniuses who work for the US government. Sadly, even though the report does make a few sensible suggestions, it does start to deteriorate as soon as it begins discussing those ‘Tweetering terrorists’.

The report discusses how terrorists would communicate stating: “The activists would tweet each other and their Twitter pages to add information on what was happening with law enforcement near real time.” The shocking expose also uncovered radical groups such as vegetarians and atheists who are using the tool to “communicate with each other and to send messages to broader audiences”.

In the past terrorists have kept their plots secret, so it’s unlikely they will switch to public communication networks such as Twitter anytime soon. In the meantime the rest of us can continue using Twitter to keep friends up to date with our favourite videos, blogs and pictures without fear of a terrorist attack.

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Tags: digital