Description
Social Media has changed how society communicates and how it views itself. With the world making the massive shift to the sharing of information via online social networks, clandestine groups are exploiting these platforms for their own purposes. There is strong evidence that groups such as Islamic terrorists, white supremacy organizations, and Mexican drug cartels are utilizing these online media sites for communication, recruitment, propaganda, cybercrime, and intelligence gathering. Although law enforcement and intelligence officials have partially recognized the utility of social media in investigations and intelligence gathering, they face tremendous hurdles that prevent more effective application of many social media tools. Among these hurdles, which are giving these groups an enormous advantage are: (1) lack of coordination among agencies, (2) low public trust and cooperation with law enforcement and the intelligence community by many portions of the public, (3) decreased budgets preventing government entities from developing new solutions, (4) rules and policies against the use of social media in government agencies, (5) and unfamiliarity with the functionality and nuances (including jargon and foreign languages) in social media by traditional law enforcement and intelligence community. Nevertheless, there are solutions that may alleviate many of these problems, but only if these solutions are pursued and allowed by the protocols and laws that control law enforcement and intelligence groups. Overall, free to low cost tools can play an extremely large role in assisting law enforcement and the intelligence community. While social media should become a greater part of many law enforcement investigations and intelligence gathering, government officials must respect and protect citizens' rights and abide by the laws. However they must also be aware that the "bad guys" are using social media in ways that are beyond the law and very much to the disadvantage of law enforcement and other legitimate parts of government and society. Because of the speed of innovation and technology advancement, laws that govern law enforcement and the intelligence community are rapidly becoming ineffective as tools to protect citizens of this country against the schemes of criminal organizations including in arenas of fraud, theft, human trafficking, and dozens of other aspects of the criminal world, Congress and the courts must consider updating current laws to apply to newer technologies in ways that law enforcement and the courts can appropriately prosecute criminals nationally and internationally. Law enforcement and intelligence groups will absolutely have to make changes in what they are doing as the enormity of the changes in social media have fundamentally changed the world.
