The FBI of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation unveiled a request for a new social media monitoring tool contract on July 8 (local time). According to the RFP document, it is seeking early warning tools to monitor terrorist groups and criminal activities in the United States.
The requirements of this tool are to be able to provide the FBI with access to all social media activities of the person being investigated. Specifically, the FBI can acquire e-mail addresses, user IDs for various services, e-mails, IP addresses, and phone numbers using tools.
In other words, it has a function that lets users know about their Internet activities as if they were naked. However, the RFP also contains a statement contrary to the previous statement that the FBI must securely protect all personal data protection and civil liberty requirements.
The FBI is soliciting contracts for a new social media surveillance tool: https://t.co/3AglNJuote
They’re not beating around the bush in terms of how pervasively they’re monitoring social media content: pic.twitter.com/Zo528lt8Pd
— Hugh Handeyside (@hhandeyside) July 12, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
The Trump regime seems to be active in monitoring SNS. In 2017, the DHS of the US Department of Homeland Security began collecting information and search results related to social media profiles as part of the US immigration and immigration screening, which also scammed the backlash from the American Civil Liberties Federation ACLU. In January, the ACLU filed a legal filing, but this time in March, it was reported that it is working with the Social Security Administration to monitor the social media of the recipients for the disability benefit program to provide for illegal supply.
Obviously, social media surveillance can know to some extent the user’s humanity, and the CIA is also collecting information from SNS early on. However, it may be a concern whether there is a possibility that this tool will be used differently from its original intention due to changes in social circumstances. Related information can be found here .