Homeland Analysts Told to Monitor Policy Debates in Social Media

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/23/us/house-questions-homeland-security-program-on-social-media.html?_r=1&hpw

Analysts for a Department of Homeland Security program that monitors social networks like Twitter and Facebook have been instructed to produce reports on policy debates related to the department, a newly disclosed manual shows.

The manual (@ https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/296596-analyst-desktop-binder-redacted.html), a 2011 reference guide for analysts working with the department’s Media Monitoring Capability program, raises questions about recent claims by Homeland Security officials who portrayed the program as limited to gathering information that would help gain operational awareness about attacks, disasters or other emerging problems.