Could Social Media Find Lone Wolf Terrorists?

Could Social Media Find Lone Wolf Terrorists?

by | Jun 21, 2011 | Social Listening, Social Media, Social Mobilization, Technology Innovations, US Government

Social Media Intelligence versus the War on Lone Wolf Terror

In a post 9-11 world, the war of terror rages on, billions of dollars are being spent to defend and destroy those that would cause harm to US citizens, her allies, and interests. In recent years, it seems the threat that may cause the greatest harm to our security is not longer Al Qaeda, but potentially those that already reside within our borders. These individuals may have succumbed to foreign propaganda or environmental pressures which inspire them to turn against their fellow citizens in an outward violent act. Unlike an attack by Al Qaeda, a lone wolf or wolves are near impossible to detect by traditional intelligence networks and local law enforcement. Moreover, the lone wolf terrorists that are already domiciled within the borders of the United States have ready access to lethal materials and high population centers. Yet, in a world highly connected via social media, mobile communications, and the internet, could social media be used to sniff out potential terrorists threats? Personally, I believe it could.

As US Citizens, we need to think on a much more localized level, while simultaneously monitoring global conditions. The challenge for law enforcement is that Lone Wolf terrorists may be inspired by global events without actually being directly connected to a specific terror organization or watched intelligence network. In a statement by former FBI Agent Jack Cloonan, “We don't know what a lone wolf; al Qaeda-inspired operative looks like. We don't know where they hang out; we don't know really what motivates them. So when you don't know that, you've got a talent pool of people that is so huge, it stresses law enforcement. We just don't know what they look like and what they want to do."

Here inlays the problem. The US government currently looks at social media intelligence in the same contextual fashion as a Google search.  Most recent example is its 2010 contract with Visible Technologies via the CIA technology investment fund, whereas Visible crawls over 500,000 social content sites twice a day, and scores the poster sentiment (positive, negative, neutral) against a predefined contextual document. If the poster has a degree of influence or social following, then they may end up on a watch list by one or more government agencies. This is the same type of technology that many companies use to measure their brand reputation. Where this technology fall short is it sorts more on contextual relevance than actual meaning. Moreover, influence over others means very little if you are a lone wolf.

A better platform would be one that uses contextual search like visible in association with semantic search and scoring.   Whereas, the process of semantic search seeks to improve search accuracy by understanding searcher intent and the contextual meaning of terms as they appear in the searchable data space, whether on the Web or within a closed system, which generates more relevant results. Example: Tom Cruise, being the bomb, would not be confused with a man named Tom looking to detonate an explosive device on a cruise. More importantly, this tool should be available to both local and federal law enforcement agencies. Given that if local law enforcement is reporting suspicious activities IE acts of trespassing at city water reserves, and there seems to be a repetitive actions happening in other cities within a given time period then there may be cause for a deeper federal investigation. If this was compounded by lone wolf or wolves social media chatter on “Let’s poison the water supply”, using action words and phrases showing a repetitive intent to comment such and act then the treat matrix would be elevated to mobilize against such a threat while in the planning stages.

How would one build such a system? I spent a lot of time on this issue, given that I have designed several social analytics and engagement tools in the past. Simplistically speaking it would require the following steps.

1)      Access to large data pipes of RSS feeds with specialized crawlers designed to target specific sites of interest. Include video and media feeds as well.

2)      Create model documents of potential terrorist scenarios

3)      Turn the model  document into a searchable algorithms using Semantic Latent Indexing

4)      Build information capture sites that use the model documents as a guide to search engine optimize a lone wolf into accessing “How to build bad things that hurt people” downloads.  

5)      Run the search algorithm to find specific “suspects” of interest per potential terrorist scenario.

6)      Use an automated reverse lookup or trace route (if possible) to determine origin and potentially identity of user.

7)      If user is anonymous, then auto engage the user, using a social bot, or automated response program that uses in part the suspect’s subject matter in conjunction with a preformatted action text in hopes to gain more intelligence on the user to establish true intent, by posing as a like minded individual. Engagement tactic may be to send them to the capture site, capture their IP address, time on site, downloads, to help establish potential threat.  

8)      Compare data gained in suspect search algorithm with that gained from the capture site.

9)      Find affiliated accounts, handles, or suspect’s network of friends via communication threads or social media friends and begin to semantically monitor conversations.

10)   Monitor and turn potential treats over to local, federal, or national law enforcement based upon treat analysis.

11)   Threats that became creditable would be tagged in the system to better target future threats. The end result would be a fairly accurate profile per threat scenario.   

Outside of Al Qaeda terrorists, this type of technology would have a great practical application in local law enforcement in regards to:

1)      Potential sex offenders / human traffickers

2)      Pre-planned. mass violence – such as the 2007 Virginia Tech Shooting leaving 33 dead

3)      Drug trafficking

4)      Organized crime  

I would love to hear your thoughts. Please comment and share. If anyone knows someone in government that would want to build such a system, I would be happy to have that discussion in depth, so please contact me.

 


Could Social Media Find Lone Wolf Terrorists?

Pay-Per-Friend, Social Matchmaking Just Became Big Business!

by | Mar 31, 2011 | Brand Strategy, gPad, Internet Marketing, Media Convergence, Pay-Per-Friend, Social Influencers, Social Listening, Social Media, Technology Innovations, Viral Marketing

 

Money can’t buy love, but it can buy you millions of guaranteed friends to support your politics, purchases, or personal pursuits.

pay-per-friend

I just generated over 100,000 friends, followers, and fans for 4 separate clients over the past 96 hours! The catch phrase immortalized by the Beatles “Money can’t buy me love”, has been repeated as the golden rule of relationships for decades by hopeful hearts and probably poor romantic novelists has now been proven a farce. What seemly separates social friend fishing as opposed to true personal interaction is the message relevance and method of continual, hierarchical engagement. The expected end result is not to collect friends, followers, and fans, but to create an army of like minded individuals that can be lead to a specific action. Whether that action is one of capitalism or cause, integrated socialization into any media campaign can create exponential results.

The idea of pay-per-friend came from my initial pay-per-call platform I built years ago, in which you only paid for qualified client calls generated from our advertising. Unlike pay-per-friend, pay per call is a one shot, one kill deal, when a call comes in the advertiser answers, the interaction is now over. Referral potential from a call in client is low.  In a pay-per-friend model, targeted friend is engaged, we continue to feed the target client relevant interaction, which create additional interaction with the target friends circle of influence, thus semi-viral fellowship begins to grow exponentially.

Pay-Per-Friend campaign basic steps – minus social technology details

 

Step 0: Start with the end in mind – simply put, in a perfect world what is the end result? Do you want 10,000 calls into the governor’s office? Change the perception of consumer confidence in a specific product or brand? Or promote your stock to those most likely to buy? All is possible, but the goals need to be set ahead of time.

Step 1: Set the stage / Client targeting via digital listening – this means selectively harvesting followership by listening to the interactions within the social sphere and create immediate engagement based upon the relevance of the conversation which compliments a per determined position.

Step 2: Socially class engaged as a leader or lemming – simply stated, does the engaged follower have their own following. Dependent upon the influence of the engaged participant, semi-automated to personal social interaction may be the best course of action, as opposed to the lemmings that will follow and syndicate a social conversation just to be a part of the group, cause, or conversation.

Step 3: Cross connect social, mobile, and traditional media platforms – Create tasks that help identify your social army, and allow you as the brand, advertiser, or agency to connect those identified as influencers to cross pollinate to other social mediums. The easiest way this can be achieved is to give influencers access to social, mobile, and ad mob tools to elevate their influence status.    

Step 4: Seed social action and let leadership take form – plant a single seed in the mind of an individual, and potentially change the world. Carefully crafted and timely interactions will yield a predictive result. Those of social influence will lead an army of followers to an end action. Dependent upon the levels of influence of your social sphere, interactions can range from syndicated to highly personal.

Step 5: Create a rewards system – rewards can be a powerful motional tool, but like any compensation, the expectation must meet reality. Doesn’t promise and not deliver, or you will create a viral A coup d'état.

Step 6: Measure the social success, optimize and repeat – from step 0 to now, friends were engaged, mobilization occurred, and most likely new opportunities emerged.

Step 7: RECYCLE – Just because you won the war, does not mean you throw your army away!