After discussing the micro-blogging site, Twitter, in class this past week, I found an interesting article while searching for more information about it. On cnetnews.com, I came across an article, which voices concern over the possibility of terrorists using twitter to orchestrate attacks. The first thing I thought was "Is this for real?". Twitter seems so innocent.
The report was done by the 304th Military Intelligence Battalion. It is believed that the site could be used for targeting as it is already used by extremists to get their ideas out there and gain supporters. The article offered a number of scenarios in which terrorists could use twitter as a communication device in planning attacks, many of them included accessing twitter through a cell-phone.
I am not yet a twitter user, so I am not sure what I think about this article. It seems a little bit extreme in my opinion, but I guess you have to consider how all of these emerging technologies that are so beneficial to us could also be used in other harmful ways. It is much easier to ignore that side. While I think that this issue should be watched closely, I'd like to think that it is highly unlikely that anything like this would happen.
3 comments:
This has been getting lots of press this weekend and unfortunately it has no real merit. "Terrorists" would be just as likely to use aim, facebook, etc. to contact each other. Twitter is merely another such tool that allows for communication. It is like saying "we better listen to phone conversations because terrorists might call each other..." Oh wait, the government already did that.
I agree, I do not think terrorists are any more likely to use than any other social networking site. I also do not use Twitter, that could be a yet situation, but I would think there would also be people out there who just kind of watch for that stuff and would report anything of the like in an instance.
HAH! I also, don't use Twitter, but that is a very interesting news piece! It might be true that all other types of information are just as likely to be used, however, the fact that Twitter made it to the press under this genre is a crazy way of thinking about just how far social networking sites have gone since their start.
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