UK intelligence briefing Federal Police on social media monitoring
A UK intelligence officer has confirmed that he is advising Australian Federal Police on applying methods for using social media to predict protests and social unrest.
The system was applied during the London Olympics
Umut Ertogal, the head of open source intelligence with the UK Police National Domestic Extremism Unit, told the AusCERT security conference on the Gold Coast that the measures were being looked at ahead of the Brisbane G20 summit.
“Just like the private sector use it for marketing and branding, we’ve developed something to listen in and see what the public are thinking to gauge the mood,” Mr Ertogal said.
According to reports, the system - SOCMINT - monitors social media and generates warning of anticipated social unrest.
Mr Ertogal added that the system, which applies facial recognition technology, had led to the arrest of a citizen who tweeted that UK Prime Minister David Cameron would be visiting London’s Kings Cross station.
“That one tweet went out to 100,000 people so now 100,000 people knew that David Cameron was coming to Kings Cross at 4.30 pm,” he said.
“It was 4.00 pm at this time so quick research, a quick response and calling transport police mean we got ten arrests in 30 minutes,” Mr Ertogal said.
The AFP has not confirmed if it will be applying the technology.