Amidst concern from activists, Twitter has blocked so-called "fusion centers" from accessing a social media monitoring tool intended to keep journalists abreast of breaking news.
In 2014, Twitter and CNN announced a partnership with Dataminr to develop an alert system for journalists. Dubbed Dataminr for News, it was intended to save journalists from hours of scrolling through pointless tweets by surfacing important and trending news. Users set up Google Alert-like notifications for breaking information to be delivered automatically via mobile or desktop alerts.
The ACLU, however, expressed concern that a Los Angeles area fusion center was using Dataminr's Geospatial Analysis Application for keyword searches and location-based tracking. "Using Dataminr, fusion centers like JRIC could search billions of real-time and historical public tweets and then potentially share information with the federal government." Dataminr also reportedly touted the tool's ability to track protestors to the LAPD.
As described by the Department of Homeland Security, "Fusion centers are information sharing hubs that provide comprehensive and appropriate access, analysis, and dissemination that no other single partner can offer." They are independent from federal partners, so as to "provide partners with a unique perspective on threats to their state or locality, contributing to the national threat picture," DHS says.
According to the ACLU, however, the country's 77 fusion centers are "domestic spy centers [with] a history of sweeping in constitutionally protected political, religious, and artistic activity [and gathering] information about innocent people deemed 'suspicious' by law enforcement."
In a Dec. 12 letter to the ACLU, Twitter said its "long-standing position has been that the use of Twitter data for surveillance is strictly prohibited, and we continue to expand our enforcement efforts."
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"Over the course of this year, Dataminr has refined its product for public sector users to be tailored to...breaking news alerts," so first responders have details about emergency situations as soon as possible, Twitter wrote.
"We have shared our concerns with Dataminr regarding fusion centers [so] Dataminr will no longer support direct access by fusion centers, and has informed us that any accounts accessible by fusion center email addresses have been notified that their access is now terminated. Dataminr news alerts (and only news alerts) will still be directly available to law enforcement and other organizations that support first response, subject to Dataminr and Twitter policies."
"Twitter's action is an important step to protect users. But social media surveillance is just a piece of the surveillance puzzle," Nicole Ozer, technology and civil liberties policy director at the ACLU of California, wrote in a blog post. "Companies and communities will need to take further steps in the months and years ahead to build in much stronger transparency, accountability, and oversight or government surveillance and make sure that rights are properly protected."