Ginger McCall, EPIC’s Open Government Program, joins Thom Hartmann. While Progressives may enjoy reading the Huffington Post – and Conservatives may enjoy reading the Drudge Report – the Department of Homeland Security apparently enjoys reading BOTH websites..as well as social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.
So why is DHS monitoring popular news and social networking websites? Well…the agency claims it’s JUST trying to keep tabs on major, developing events – and has been since 2010. Just monitoring web traffic around things like the Haiti earthquake and the Winter Olympics – to help the DHS command center better respond to them.
But is that REALLY what’s going on? Not according to the Electronic Privacy Information, EPIC – which recently filed a Freedom of Information Act Request with the Department of Homeland Security to find out what’s REALLY going on.