FBI sees social media as significant intelligence gathering tool

Social media is big, and it’s applications and uses clearly extend beyond social aspects or even business aspects, as shown by the fact that the FBI are now increasingly using social media as a crime fighting and evidence and intelligence gathering tool.

This is shown by the fact that this month the FBI made it known that it is shortlisting software companies who can create a sophisticated data mining tool for trawling social media sites.

In a recent case indicating the value of social media for law enforcement (the London riots being another example where, after the event, evidence in abundance was retrieved from facebook, twitter and other social media sites) a number of gang members in New York were arrested and charged relating to a series of tit-for-tat murders and significant evidence to support the charges was gleaned from twitter.