The Pentagon is planning to 'continuously' trawl the social media accounts of military personnel for 'extremist behavior and views' - and will use a private security company to shield itself from concerns that it's violating First Amendment rights. The Pentagon social media monitoring program has already sparked backlash over concerns about free speech and fears military members could be targeted for 'lack of wokeness'. The program will likely use keyword searches on social media to identify military personnel with extremist political views or behaviors. Babel Street, a private company in Washington DC that sells social media monitoring software, is the front runner to carry out the surveillance, according to Pentagon officials. '(It) will make recommendations on further development of such capabilities and incorporating machine learning and natural language processing into social media screening platforms.'

Source: Daily Mail May 18, 2021 15:55 UTC