Terrorist Twits?

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Read an interesting article in Yahoo tech today about a US Army report on the potential use of Twitter by terrorists and other subversive groups. After initially rolling my eyes about the government going a little to far, I began to see who Twitter could be used by terrorists and the like.  Twitters ability to provide "live" coverage of an event is something that some of us in the security industry have used at infosec shows.  The example cited by the article about activists at the Republican National Convention using twitter to report on police movements and positions is compelling. You can see how twitter could be used for that type of thing.

But than I think the report goes to far:

"Twitter has also become a social activism tool for socialists, human rights groups, communists, vegetarians, anarchists, religious communities, atheists, political enthusiasts, hacktivists and others to communicate with each other and to send messages to broader audiences," the report said.

Hacktivists refers to politically motivated computer hackers.

"Twitter is already used by some members to post and/or support extremist ideologies and perspectives," the report said

If all they are doing is disseminating their ideas, I think it is protected under freedom of speech. It would be good to see a court hold that "tweeting your mind" is a protected form of communication and expression.

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