The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's command center routinely monitors dozens of popular websites, including Facebook, Twitter, Hulu, WikiLeaks and news and gossip sites including the Huffington Post and Drudge Report, according to a government document.
A "privacy compliance review" issued by DHS last November says that since at least June 2010, its national operations center has been operating a "Social Networking/Media Capability" which involves regular monitoring of "publicly available online forums, blogs, public websites and message boards."
The purpose of the monitoring, says the government document, is to "collect information used in providing situational awareness and establishing a common operating picture."
The document adds, using more plain language, that such monitoring is designed to help DHS and its numerous agencies, which include the U.S. Secret Service and Federal Emergency Management Agency, to manage government responses to such events as the 2010 earthquake and aftermath in Haiti and security and border control related to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Eight backcountry skiers have been found dead and one remains missing after an avalanche near Lake...
Six backcountry skiers were stranded and 10 others were missing on Tuesday, Feb. 17, after an...
Construction on the nation’s largest infrastructure project can resume after a court ordered the Trump administration...
The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, a protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and two-time...
