The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has more or less the same Internet habits as your middle-aged uncle, monitoring news websites and social networks like the Huffington Post, Drudge Report, Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. (The latter has “limited search” capability, a government document notes.) The “Social Networking/Media Capability” command center is meant to supply “timely information for decision makers,” and also includes blogs like Wired’s Threat Level and Danger Room, plus the New York Times’ The Lede. Serious stuff like WikiLeaks, Cryptome, and JihadWatch are on the list, too, along with Hulu, presumably for the SNL clips. In all, the department hopes to “collect information used in providing situational awareness and establishing a common operating picture.” Most offices call it procrastinating; we, too, call it work.
