FBI seeking social media monitoring tool
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking for a tool to mine social media for intelligence tips.
The US domestic law enforcement agency is asking information technology contractors about the feasibility of building a tool that would "enhance its techniques for collecting and sharing 'open source' actionable intelligence."
The January 19 open request was published on a website offering federal business opportunities and was first reported by New Scientist magazine.
The FBI said it is seeking an "open source and social media alert, mapping and analysis application solution" for its Strategic Information and Operations Center (SIOC).
"Social media has become a primary source of intelligence because it has become the premier first response to key events and the primal alert to possible developing situations," the FBI request said.
"Intelligence analysts will often use social media to receive the first tip-off that a crisis has occurred," it said.
The FBI said the tool "must have the ability to rapidly assemble critical open source information and intelligence that will allow SIOC to quickly vet, identity, and geo-locate breaking events, incidents and emerging threats."
It would need to be able to "instantly search and monitor key words and strings in all 'publicly available' tweets across the Twitter site and any other 'publicly available' social networking sites/forums."
It would also need the ability to "search the data across a myriad of parameters and view terrorist activities by location, terrorist group, and type of attack and see trends and analytics."
In addition, it would have to be able "to immediately translate into English, tweets and any other open forum publically available social media captured in a foreign language."
Interested parties have until February 10 to respond to the FBI request.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.98b3636e34b08a0fcd674a900f2deb90.b1&show_article=1
Twitter announces it will censor some tweets; activists worried
Policy would allow same message to be seen in some countries but not others
Twitter service may be getting spotty in some countries.
The micro-blogging firm announced on the company blog Thursday that it plans to change its censorship policies to comply with different countries' regulations.
"As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression," the post read. "Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. Others are similar, but for historical or cultural reasons, restrict certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi comment."
Users' tweets will be blocked in a country where they are against the law, but shown in nations where they are legal. For example, a pro-Nazi tweet may be scrubbed in Germany, but would appear on the user's account if read in the U.S.
When Twitter removes a comment, it says it will clearly mark when a Tweet has been censored and send it to the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse, which is creating a database of tweets deleted not only because of censorship but also as a result of cease-and-desist notices and copyright infringement.
The news comes a year after Twitter played a crucial part in the Egyptian revolution and other Arab Spring protests.
Twitter was also credited with being a key tool in the Iranian protests of the 2009 elections and some pundits pointed to the service as key in the 2011 Tunisian revolution.
The move, while it could be disappointing for some revolutionaries, follows a similar policy to Google, The Associated Press pointed out — and could help Twitter expand from 100 million active users to more than 1 billion around the world.
"One of our core values as a company is to defend and respect each user's voice. We try to keep content up wherever and whenever we can, and we will be transparent with users when we can't. The tweets must continue to flow," the company added.
On Twitter, users protested the move with a #dontcensor campaign.
Media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders also announced on Twitter that it would send a letter protesting the move.
“Reporters Without Borders is very worried by #Twitter’s decision to cooperation with #censorship,” the group tweeted.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/money/twitter-announces-censor-tweets-activists-worried-article-1.1012804#ixzz1kgv0dBe5
It is good news for Virginia
Senate panel backs repeal of one gun a month law
The Senate Courts of Justice Committee on Wednesday approved a measure that would eliminate Virginia's one-gun-a-month restriction on handgun purchases, setting up what could be the most significant change to Virginia's gun laws in years.
The committee deferred until next year consideration of a bill that would exempt from state background checks long guns and rifles purchased from gun dealers, and a senator withdrew from consideration a bill that would have restricted public colleges and universities from enacting regulations to bar the carrying of firearms on campus. Currently, the state's schools can enact their own regulations banning guns on campus.
Gun-rights advocates are pushing a number of bills, emboldened by a conservative wave of Republican lawmakers who were elected in November and tipped the Senate's balance to the GOP. Republicans have an 8-7 majority on the Courts committee, which Democrats controlled last year.
In 1993, the legislature approved the one-gun-a-month restriction, advocated by then-Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, to address interstate trafficking of firearms in Virginia. Attempts to repeal the law had failed before this session, in which Republicans assumed control of the Senate for the first time in four years.
The vote on Senate Bill 323, sponsored by Sen. Charles W. Carrico Sr., R-Grayson, was 8-6, with Sen. John S. Edwards, D-Roanoke, voting for passage with seven Republicans. Sen. Thomas K. Norment, Jr., R-James City, who was not present at the time of the vote, was recorded as abstaining. The vote came during a marathon five-hour meeting in which lawmakers took up a series of gun bills.
The repeal measure has strong support in the Republican-dominated House of Delegates, and Gov. Bob McDonnell has indicated he is inclined to sign the bill.
Opponents of Carrico's bill said repeal of the law would hamper efforts to stem the flow of weapons.
"The only group that this law currently prohibits is gun traffickers," said gun-control advocate Andrew Goddard, father of Virginia Tech shooting survivor Colin Goddard. "Getting rid of the only law we have on the books ... is not going to make that problem go away."
Josh Horwitz of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence said the concern was not the purchaser of a couple of handguns during a month, but the "huge, bulk, multiple sales" of guns.
Advocates for the legislation said the current law has so many exceptions allowing for the purchase of more than one handgun a month — for people like police officers and holders of concealed-weapon permits — that everyday law-abiding citizens are the only ones who can't exercise a constitutionally protected right.
Carrico said only California, Maryland and New Jersey have similar laws, "which I don't want to be characterized with."
The senator was less enthusiastic about presenting Senate Bill 324, which would have restricted schools from imposing gun bans on campus. The bill had drawn opposition from numerous gun-control advocates and had received a tepid reception from McDonnell.
"It's not ready for prime time," he said, telling the committee he wants to address problems with the bill and bring it back next year.
The committee also approved a measure that would prohibit anyone subject to an emergency protective order after an arrest for domestic violence from having a gun in the home of their alleged victim. Senate Bill 554, sponsored by Sen. Barbara Favola, D-Arlington, was approved 9-6.
The committee also approved, along party lines, a bill that would immunize from civil liability a person who uses deadly force against an intruder in his home. Senate Bill 4, sponsored by Sen. Richard H. Stuart, R-Westmoreland, passed 8-7.
Senators also approved a measure that would prohibit localities from requiring fingerprints of first-time applicants for concealed-handgun permits.
"It's an onus on the law-abiding citizen and unnecessary," said Sen. Thomas A. Garrett Jr., R-Louisa, a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 67, with Sen. William M. Stanley Jr., R-Franklin County.
Opponents, including gun-control advocates and the Virginia Municipal League said fingerprint checks are part of a system that helps identify people who are not qualified to carry concealed weapons. Roughly one-third of Virginia's communities require fingerprinting of applicants of concealed-weapon permits. The vote was 8-6, with Norment again abstaining by proxy.
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2012/jan/26/tdmain01-senate-panel-backs-repeal-of-one-gun-a-mo-ar-1640517/
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