Twitter as terrorist tool

Web 2.0 sites highlighted by US army report

27 October 2008 15:47 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

A draft US Army intelligence report has suggested Twitter could become a terrorist tool.

US agencies are apparently "worried that terrorists might start to use new communication technologies like the blogging site Twitter to plan and organise attacks."

In a chapter of the report called "Potential for Terrorist Use of Twitter" the report notes that first reports of the Los Angeles earthquake in July appeared on the service before established news outlets.

The report says: "Twitter is already used by some members to post and support extremist ideologies and perspectives.

"Terrorists could theoretically use Twitter social networking in the US as an operational tool."

Facebook, MySpace, and online gaming networks have all been highlighted recently by both the US and UK governments as potential virtual places terrorists could plan attacks.

Full tags

Software, Websites, Online, Twitter