Introduction

We wrote this book because the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) once ruined an Irish tourist's vacation because of a tweet. In 2012, before embarking on a vacation to the U.S., Leigh Van Bryan excitedly tweeted that he was going to “destroy America.” When he landed in the US, the DHS detained him in a cell with Mexican drug dealers for 12 hours. With the best of intentions, the DHS confronted him with his tweet, not realizing that “destroy America” was not a threat but slang indicating he was going to have fun on his vacation. Seemingly, the DHS was using a fairly rudimentary method of social media monitoring to recognize threats without understanding the nuances of social media use and data analysis, leading to a misguided arrest and a waste of investigative resources. The DHS also apparently did not realize that terrorists are not very likely to tweet their operational plans right before they attack.

This and other similar episodes illustrate the knowledge gap in government and security circles regarding social media data analysis and technology use. Although there are many exceptions, too many well-intentioned security professionals use social media ineffectively and irresponsibly. Misguided use of social media wastes time and money, erodes people's civil liberties and privacy, and jeopardizes security.

We have also noticed that some people tasked with providing or analyzing security either think social media is the greatest thing ever created or the most useless. In reality, it is neither. It is indeed something that young people waste time using, but it is also a potent tool and a reservoir of data for helping solve security problems concerning irregular warfare challenges, discrete intelligence collection, intelligence analysis, covert operations, risk analysis influence operations, and much more. The sooner policymakers, military and law enforcement personnel, diplomats, and other security professionals realize this, the safer our world will be for it. Social media will not solve all of your problems but it can definitely help solve some.

What This Book Is About

Most books about social media and security are concerned with personal security. They deal with important issues about identity theft and, for example, how to set privacy settings on Facebook. Although we briefly address the topic, this book is not about personal security. This book is also not about conducting marketing and creating brand awareness through social media; however, some of the approaches we discuss are related and applicable in those areas as well.

This book is about how to use social media data and technologies to improve and positively influence matters of global security. Specifically, this book will teach you the following seven skills:

Our intent is not to dictate how you should use social media, but to reveal the opportunities that social media presents. We provide you with the basic information, skills, and ideas to get started. We hope you will expand, critique, and build on the knowledge contained herein. We also hope this book encourages you to seek out and learn more about the relationship between social media and security issues. Throughout the book, we regularly reference controversial stories and issues, but we do not dictate how you should think about them. Our focus is on detailing how to use social media to improve and conduct specialized operations, not on debating the future of social media and estimating its influence. We are standing on new ground and we leave it to you to measure its fertility.

Before we outline the approaches and methods discussed in the forthcoming chapters, we want to briefly address what we mean by global security.

What Constitutes Global Security

We encourage you to, for the most part; forget what you know about global security. Terms such as global security and international security are constantly evolving and often subject to intense academic discussion. Traditionally, the terms have dealt with states and issues of interstate war and power. Practitioners were encouraged to apply theories such as Realism and Liberalism to assessing how states react to security issues. As the World Wars and Cold War wound down and the number of major interstate conflicts dwindled, the focus then shifted to encompassing international organizations and intrastate issues like civil wars.

Due to globalization and major terrorist attacks, the focus has shifted again to assessing the effects of non-state actors. The spread of inexpensive and powerful technologies such as computers and biotechnology has increased the ability of non-state actors including terrorists, criminals, and rioters to impact international security. We now live in a globally connected world, where partly due to emerging and widespread social media technology, a self-immolating distraught young man can spark events that affect the lives of billions and foil the foreign policies of the most powerful countries in the world. Simply put, power is constantly shifting and diluting from states to groups and individuals.

So when we say global security or international security, we mean everything that affects the safety and lives of people around you. Global security now encompasses great power politics, civil wars, terrorist groups, transnational narcotics, human trafficking, irregular warfare, cyber criminals, violent rioters, lone-wolf serial murderers, disease epidemics, and much more. Traditional Realism considered states as rational actors that performed cost-benefit analyses before committing action. This mode of thinking is not relevant to our needs. Now, especially when using social media technologies, you have to take into account the emotions, fears, and hopes of small groups and individuals. As the definition of international security has expanded, so have the theories and heuristics that help you understand it. Beyond this book and the usual foreign policy and security books, we encourage you to read up on disparate fields such as cognitive science, behavioral economics, statistical modeling, biology, and physics. Using social media effectively demands a familiarity with unfamiliarity and unconventional ways of thinking.

Who Should Read This Book

Since the definition of global security has expanded, so has the number and type of people concerned with it. This book is intended for the emerging international security workforce—those who have to plan, execute, and manage everything from counterterrorism operations to risk analysis projects. We are writing for the analyst and operator, examples of which appear in Table I.1.

Table I.1: Examples of Intended Audience

Table I.1 is not exhaustive. Even if you are not directly involved with global security issues, or are not a practitioner, we hope this book will provide you with another perspective to assess, report, and understand the emerging, interconnected world.

How This Book Is Organized

To aid understanding, this book is split into the following four parts:

• Part I provides you with the necessary background knowledge about social media to use the methods detailed in the book.
  • Chapter 1 illustrates how social media is impacting global security issues. If you doubt social media's influence, capabilities, and relevance, you need to read this chapter.
  • Chapter 2 defines social media, introduces pertinent existing and emerging technologies, and describes their use globally. Understanding the different technologies and patterns of usage around the world will help you take into account contextual factors when analyzing social media data and focus your efforts when building crowdsourcing platforms. Even if you are generally familiar with social media, we encourage you to read the chapter so you do not miss key relevant facts.
• Part II describes how to conduct social media data analytics to solve specific problems.
  • Chapter 3 introduces key analytical terms, methodologies, and definitions. If you have little experience using quantitative methodologies and conducting data analytics, this chapter will prove especially helpful. You can also apply the methodologies to problems not related to social media data. You need only a general knowledge of basic math and scientific principles, and we do our best to ensure it does not put you to sleep.
  • Chapter 4 details best practices for collecting and managing social media and other relevant data. It explains several processes for collecting, filtering, and storing data, and discusses when to use which process. It also addresses technical and legal issues concerning data collection, and what you should look out for when building or purchasing data collection tools.
  • Chapter 5 focuses on social network analysis, and explains how to do social network analysis using social media data to map networks, identify key people and relationships in networks, and track the spread of ideas.
  • Chapter 6 explores different methods of using social media data and other data to understand and forecast a variety of security events, behaviors, and issues. Methods include intelligence monitoring of real-time social media data, language and sentiment analysis, correlation and regression analysis, and volumetric analysis.
• Part III shows how to design, build, and maintain crowdsourcing platforms, which enable you to communicate with and collect information and solutions from the crowds using social media.
  • Chapter 7 introduces the concept of crowdsourcing, its relationship to social media technologies, and its advantages and limitations. It also covers when it is appropriate to crowdsourcing and provides numerous examples of relevant crowdsourcing projects.
  • Chapter 8 covers the general rules and steps for designing, building, and managing crowdsourcing platforms regardless of their objective.
  • Chapter 9 illustrates how to design, build, and maintain crowdsourcing platforms to incentivize populations in a variety of situations and areas to provide intelligence about a range of security issues,
  • Chapter 10 illustrates how to design, build, and maintain crowdsourcing platforms to incentivize populations to solve security and related technical problems.
  • Chapter 11 illustrates how to design, build, and maintain crowdsourcing platforms to discreetly influence populations and encourage them to adopt certain viewpoints and behaviors.
• Part IV introduces more complex ways of using social media data, and using social media to solve issues tangentially related to social media. It also addresses critical issues regarding privacy and the ethics of social media use.
  • Chapter 12 summarizes more complex analytical methodologies and their increasing relevance to social media. The methodologies are cluster analysis, geo-spatial network analysis, and agent modeling.
  • Chapter 13 describes how to use social media technologies and crowdsourcing to improve provision of education and health services in denied areas, so as to improve security in those areas.
  • Chapter 14 discusses current and arriving laws and norms concerning privacy and use of social media data that may impact your ability to use social media effectively, safely, and lawfully. It also teaches those of you concerned about privacy or those who fear abuse of social media use by oppressive regimes, how to protect your identity, privacy, and free speech.

The chapters feature numerous examples, walkthroughs, and case studies regarding real-world issues and events. We reference many major news events that came up during the writing of this book, and bluntly call out contemporary misuse of social media data and technology. Our intention is not to be controversial or disrespectful but to be intellectually honest and straightforward.

All the information in this book is available in the public domain or based on examining publically viewable websites and platforms. Our intention is not to divulge secrets or sensitive information. We only pulled together publically available information from disparate fields and converted them into a digestible format. To this purpose, we reference numerous websites and publications throughout the book. Go through them for more information. Also refer to the Appendix if you want more information about existing social media platforms and software solutions.

Conventions

To help you get the most from the text and keep track of what is happening, we have used a number of conventions throughout the book.

As for styles in the text:

• We highlight new terms and important words when we introduce them.
• We show keyboard strokes like this: Ctrl+A.
• We show filenames, URLs, and code within the text like so: persistence .properties.

Tools You Will Need

You need a decent computer, a simple cell phone, and regular access to the Internet to accomplish the walkthroughs. Familiarity with cell phones and mainstream social media platforms such as Twitter will help.

You will need certain software and services to complete the walkthroughs. We recommend you use the ones listed in Table I.2. We picked them because they are simple, easy-to-use, and relatively inexpensive. However, many other open-source and commercial software solutions and services can replace the ones we listed and you should feel free to use them if you are more comfortable with them. A good example of a relevant open-source program is the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School's Lighthouse program (http://lhproject.info.com/about-lighthouse/).

Table I.2: Recommended Software Tools and Services

What's on the Website

Social media technologies become obsolete and replaced at a rapid rate, and so will your knowledge about social media if you do not actively seek out new information. The companion website helps you keep up-to-date by providing updates about the most cutting-edge and relevant technologies, analytical methods, software solutions, and news stories and issues. The website also hosts several data files including ones we use and reference in the walkthroughs and examples throughout the book. Lastly, visit our website if you are interested in learning more about the DHS episode we referenced earlier.

A Note on Using Social Media Ethically

We dedicated a chapter to the human rights and privacy issues concerning social media. However, because the topic is so pivotal and controversial, we also wanted to briefly say a few things about it now. Doing so will help you understand where we are coming from and our expectations for how you should use the knowledge in this book.

Our goal is to impart you with knowledge that will help you curb terrorist attacks, stop criminals, ensure peace in communities, give a voice and freedom to the oppressed, and save victims of humanitarian disasters. We encourage everyone to use the tools and information we discuss lawfully, ethically, responsibly, and to achieve positive goals. Where possible we have minimized the ability of antagonistic actors to exploit this knowledge for their end.

Still, risk exists that some may use the knowledge here to imperil security and harm populations. We feel, however, that the risks are smaller than expected and far outweighed by the benefits of sharing knowledge. Many antagonistic actors already use social media data and technologies, and in some cases, very effectively. Many governments, private organizations, and humanitarian organizations need to desperately catch up. Besides, most of the techniques we discuss do not deal with uncovering people's identities and seeking them out, which is what antagonistic actors largely care about. We instead focus on how you can use aggregate, non-personal data to solve problems. Additionally, we teach how you can use social media to benefit and work with populations who knowingly consent and want to work with you, so as to reduce the risk that they feel exploited or used. This book will also reduce the chance that governments and other organizations misuse or abuse social media. It will instead help them use social media safely, lawfully, and effectively with concern for people's privacy and civil liberties. Lastly, proper use of the knowledge will greatly improve the quality of life in many areas around the world. For example, proper use of crowdsourcing techniques can spur delivery of health services and mobile technologies in the poorest areas, while improving stability and security in those areas.

Note that privacy and ethical issues concerning social media are hotly debated, complex, and nascent. In the coming months and years, governments will likely begin outlining rules and policies for using social media data and technologies. Eventually, countries and groups will establish norms concerning social media privacy and the ethics of using social media technologies to solve security issues. We strongly urge you to recognize and adopt new policies and guidelines as they emerge to avoid breaking the law, upsetting your community, and chilling the free speech and anonymity that makes the Internet and social media so great. As of this writing, we are in the Wild West of social media use. Be aware that this situation will not last for long, and then adapt and be creative—because the “bad guys” certainly will.

Summary

We hope governments and law enforcement globally begin to use social media data and technologies to understand and counter emerging security problems. Like other technologies, social media is not inherently good or evil, a panacea, or a catastrophe—it is a way to connect with each other, a reflection of the changes society is undergoing, a buzzword, and a tool that in the right hands can make the world a freer and safer place.