What do the terms “dirty bomb” and “pork” and “gas” have in common?
They’re all on a list of words that raise red flags with the government when you use them in a tweet or a Facebook status update. Hubze has released the complete list of terms the Department of Homeland Security is looking for when it monitors your social media activity.
So if you tweet that you’re “brute forcing my way onto a crowded Metro subway because the last train got canceled” (words in italics are on the list), you may find yourself on a list of people who used words that Homeland Security calls “Items of Interest,” or IOIs.
The list was only released after a long round of legislative posturing. And, for the record, the Department of Homeland Security has told the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counter-terrorism and Intelligence it is more interested in tracking what people are saying and not necessarily who is saying it.
The monitoring is being done at an expense to taxpayers of about $11 million and extends beyond social networks to comments left on articles and Websites, including Huffington Post and the New York Times, according to Hubze.
We’ve asked Homeland Security is ReadWriteWeb is on the list; we’ll update as soon as we hear back from them.
