Following the social disruptions and political upheaval of the Arab Spring, it should come as no surprise that monitoring social networks, such as Twitter, is quickly becoming an important intelligence-gathering technique.
And recently, that analysis was given confirmation, according to a report on TMCNet.com.
A NATO spokesman said recently the organization has a finger on the pulse of social networking sites, especially in areas closed to ground troops, such as Libya, TMCNet reported.
“We’ll get information from open source on the Internet. We’ll get Twitter — you name any source of media and our fusion center will deliver all of that into usable intelligence,†Bracken said.
Another NATO source recently told The U.K. Telegraph that monitoring Twitter has become another intelligence “tool in the box,†although with some logical caveats.
“We don’t see something on Twitter and go and drop bombs,†the source said. “We never act on a single source. It’s more complex.â€
