Social Media Monitoring: Can It Prevent School Shootings? Cybertraps 129 Cybertraps Podcast

Show notes - The Uvalde School Shooting -- A Trove of Social Media Content - Gunman posted ominous photos of rifles and other messages on Instagram - He privately messaged a young woman that he planned to attack an elementary school - He used Yubo to threaten school shootings and show off a rifle - Context - Social media is one element of a complex problem - Uvalde already used security tech, including: - Raptor Technologies, for monitoring visitors - Social Sentinel, for identifying social media threats - Challenges posed by new, less-easily monitored online channels - Increased use of end-to-end encryption even on more well-established sites, like WhatsApp, Apple Messenger, Signal, etc. Facebook wants to make E2E encryption the default for Instagram and Facebook Messenger as well. Law enforcement is opposed. - FaceTime - Yubo - Snapchat - Instagram direct messaging - Discord - Twitch - "They are fundamentally designed to keep communications private, presenting different challenges than Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, where violent screeds and videos have been algorithmically amplified to millions of viewers." - "The way that generation uses social media more generally could render years of work to spot and identify public signs of upcoming violence obsolete, social media experts warn." - Responses - Culture of cybersafety - Department of Justice School Violence Prevention Program may provide funding [https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-invests-more-87-million-grants-address-school-violence](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-invests-more-87-million-grants-address-school-violence) - Increased interest in social media surveillance products - No solid evidence that they work - May have built-in racial biases in algorithms - Helps to create a culture of surveillance - Conditions children that surveillance is the norm - Creates conditions (cameras, metal detectors, full-time police presence) that can make school feel like a prison - Surveillance technology more commonly used to punish minor infractions - Use of AI and algorithm-driven products - Facial recognition - Gun detection systems (scans of security camera footage) - Pandemic has driven surveillance in effort to keep kids masked and socially-distanced - Researchers argue that surveillance measures lower student performance - Resources - Dr. Glenn Lipson - #2022-06-02 The problem with schools turning to surveillance after mass shootings [https://www.vox.com/recode/23150863/school-surveillance-mass-shooting-texas-uvalde](https://www.vox.com/recode/23150863/school-surveillance-mass-shooting-texas-uvalde) - #2022-05-28 Chilling new footage shows Texas gunman Salvador Ramos during shirtless video call with 15-year-old German girl on social media app Yubo - days before he told her about his school massacre plans [https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10862893/Uvalde-gunman-threatened-rapes-school-shootings-social-media-app-Yubo-weeks-massacre.html](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10862893/Uvalde-gunman-threatened-rapes-school-shootings-social-media-app-Yubo-weeks-massacre.html) - #2022-05-28 Texas gunman had threatened school shootings on social media, reports say [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/28/texas-gunman-threats-behavior](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/28/texas-gunman-threats-behavior) - #2022-05-27 The Gunman in Uvalde Left Multiple Hints Before His Attack Began [https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/27/us/uvalde-gunman-social-media.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/27/us/uvalde-gun