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Science & Technology
Puzzle Palace to monitor social networking sites for potential threats
2011-08-08
The US Department of Defence is offering $42m (£25m) to fund research into monitoring social networks to track the formation, development and spread of ideas, and identify misinformation and attempts to foment unrest. The move by DARPA, the defence advanced research projects agency, comes in the wake of use of social networks by insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq and by home-grown threats such as Anonymous.

DARPA is also seeking to identify people involved in such activity, what their intentions are and the impact of online campaigns to shape opinions or gather support on an issue, according to a document presented at the offices of the military contractor System Planning Corporation.

DARPA did not respond to requests for comment from the NYT.
If Tom Friedman wrote the requests, they probably couldn't comprehend them.
Posted by:Pappy

#6  "Anonymous" is a "home-grown" threat?

And how did they conclude that, given that it's on the internet and they can't positively identify anybody involved?
Posted by: mojo   2011-08-08 12:05  

#5  The evil house of DARPA fronts for houses many interesting and very COSTLY activities. Just my humble opinion.
Posted by: Besoeker   2011-08-08 11:41  

#4  I didn't think of that "flash mobs of "youts".
With so many "youts" unemployed and adults it would be a good tool. Well it should be available should the need arise.
Posted by: Dale   2011-08-08 11:06  

#3  would be useful to identify the flash mobs of "youts" who connect via FB or Twitter before they riot/steal/assault.
Posted by: Frank G   2011-08-08 10:46  

#2  Unless they've changed or amended the laws, the 'Puzzle Place' is prohibited from domestic intel gathering. A little left over gift from the Vietnam era, that restrict the function to the FBI and other agencies. Though nothing prohibits DARPA from doing a tech eval for other agencies uses.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2011-08-08 08:19  

#1  "home-grown threats such as Anonymous" Boy that guy gets around. I can see them going after the Tea party now. Oops! that's probably a hot button with this administration. Maybe that's why the old media behaves as it does. We will see. "what their intentions are" sounds like a visit or at least tag along. Muscle move on easy pickins.
Posted by: Dale   2011-08-08 07:09  

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