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How are cash-strapped police departments funding social media surveillance?
by Dowwie 10y ago
How are cash-strapped police departments funding social media surveillance?
- pjc50 10y agoThey're choosing to make it a priority. Crime threatens the public, but activists "threaten" the police - by trying to make them accountable. > "identify so-called “threats to public safety” by monitoring hashtags such as #BlackLivesMatter, #DontShoot, #ImUnarmed, #PoliceBrutality, and #ItsTimeforChange."
- rm_-rf_slash 10y agoIt's also easy to persuade people that riots could happen at any moment and could not only harm people and property, but reputation. If an area is seen as out of control, people will not go there to shop, businesses will not establish themselves there, and the city sees its tax base dry up. None of these things even have to happen to get people scared enough to vote yes.
- cryoshon 10y agoAlternatively, fighting traditional crime does not actually require that much of their budget, so they try to open up new avenues of finding criminality in order to ensure they continue to get the same budget.
- ryandrake 10y agoLow on crime? Make more criminals.
- bediger4000 10y agoIt's probably easier to monitor ordinary, lawful political conversations on social media, than it is to monitor people taking some steps toward confidential, conspiratorial conversations. Also, the social media stuff directly concerns the police image, and stature in society. Funding observations of criminals and miscreants is just their regular job. They don't get as much status for just doing their job as they might lose from institutionalized accountability.
- rectang 10y agoThey can save money by outsourcing surveillance to Iran, whose monitoring of social media was very effective in countering the Green Revolution.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoIt's pretty cheap, I guess. Cheap and easy to paint as effective (regardless of actual effectiveness).