THE RELEVANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR

THE INTELLIGENCE PROCESS

Darius COCÎRȚĂ
Academia Forțelor Terestre „Nicolae Bălcescu”, Sibiu, coc_darius@yahoo.com
Cpt. Assoc. Prof. Marius PRICOPI, Phd

ABSTRACT
Since its first appearance as a mass media environment in
the early 2000s, social media platforms have quickly
become a valuable source of information for researchers
in different areas. People spend a growing amount of their
daily time on social platforms like Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram and so on. Through social media, the Internet
has become a space where users can represent
themselves, interacting in different ways, consuming and
constantly producing information. It is clear that we need
new forms of intelligence that must radically change the
way in which organizations and individuals innovate and
seek understanding.

Keywords: intelligence, SOCMINT, hybrid-warfare, cyber-warfare, cyber-space.

Defining the SOCMINT concept.

There are various aspects that interfere simultaneously in arguing the possible use of
this information as an analysis of intelligence. This change of approach and perspective on the
interpretation and use of social media data is, in fact, the adaptation to new security and
defense concepts and practically the new challenges posed by terrorist organizations,
organized crime, and other representative threats of hybrid war.1
This has exceeded the classical and geographical commitment defined by the rival
armies, integrating the presence of new means of influencing and gathering information in a
new innovative battleground whose specific actions can be defined by combining
conventional operations with offensive actions driven into cyber space and psychological
operations that use social media to influence popular perceptions and international
opinions.2
It is from this perpetuation that the intelligence analysis of social media platforms has
an extremely high potential: the more of our real identities become more and more related to
our social media identities, the more relevant the data presented on these platforms becomes.
The presence of new means of influencing and gathering information in an innovative
battleground whose specific actions can be defined as a sophisticated campaign combining
1

Tomes, R.R., Toward a Smarter Military, Socio-Cultural Intelligence and National Security, The US Army War College Quarterly
Parameters, (Contemporary Strategy and Land-power), 2015, 42.
2

Kosinski, M., Stillwell, D. e Graepel, T., Private Traits and attributes are predictable from digital records of human behaviour.
(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), 2016, 45.
conventional operations with offensive actions taken in cyberspace and psychological
operations that use social media to influence popular perceptions and international opinions.3
Social media intelligence (SOCMINT) is the newest component of information
gathering methods that focuses on collecting and analyzing information produced and
collected through social media platforms.
However, despite the acknowledged value of SOCMINT, analysts often criticize the
lack of a strategy, doctrine, or standardized practices with regard to the use of this specific
instrument. We must be aware that the dynamic changes of the environment that characterizes
social media requires a flexible approach that is able to adapt to technological change.4

Statistical data on platforms and users

It is natural to look at the role of major social media companies like Facebook,
Twitter, Google, Microsoft, Pinterest, which increasingly influence social, economic, cultural
and political aspects of our lives. It is known that these social networks have changed in a
drastic mode the nature of human interactions over the last two decades. The constant
generated data flows along with advances knoledge in data analysis and processing, provides
an unprecedented picture of human behavior and contemporary life.5 Consider the following:
 Worldwide, there are 5.1 billion unique mobile phones users, of which 3 billion are
active on social networks
 Facebook has 2.1 billion monthly active users, of which better than half of them use
the platform at least once a day
 Facebook's like button is used 2.7 billion times a day
 Twitter processes 6000 tweets every second, that is 500 millions of tweets a day6
Taking into account the data presented, we conclude that 40% of the world's population is
using social networks, making an exceptional contribution to creating a constant data stream.
Big social media platforms have probably created the largest, richest and most dynamic
social data base ever recorded in history.7

Determinant factors – SOCMINT

However, collecting data in their primary form will not provide value and
understanding. Several steps are decisive in giving understanding of these raw data.

Omand, D., Bartlett, J., Miller, C., Introducing Social Media Intelligence (SOCMINT). Intelligence and National Security, 2012, 77.

Sumner, C., Byers, A., Boochever, R. e Park, G.J., Predicting Dark Triad Personality Traits from Twitter usage and a linguistic analysis of
Tweets, Proceedings of the IEEE 11th International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications ICMLA, 2012, 16.
5

http://arnoreuser.com/publications/ accesed on 07.01.2019

6

http://career-intelligence.com/social-media-negatively-affect-career/ accesed on 21.01.2019.

7

Kosinski, M., Stillwell, D. e Graepel, T., Private Traits and attributes are predictable from digital records of human behaviour.
(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), 2016, 5.
 Figure 1 – Intelligence process in SOCMINT
If data purchased on social networks are properly processed, analized and used, while
respecting the privacy and security standard - they can provide the necessary solutions to
address challenges with social implications. However, in order to unlock this potential, new
paths need to be created simultaneously with the transformation of social media platforms so
that intelligence expertise could provide the most relevant options for decision makers. 8
Through a careful analyses of social network activity, using target words and expressions
such as filters, intelligence analysts and policy makers can achieve deeper insights into public
opinion and behavioral analysis that relate to specific initiatives.

Ethical Regulations And Rules On Data Collection

Perhaps one of the most worrying issue with the free flow of information on social
media is the one that affects the privacy of individuals or the security of certain social groups .
Privacy is the basic principle when talking about social networks. The notion of "personal
data" refers to the private sphere and the principle of confidentiality. 9 The distinction between
public and private domains is clearly summed up by each user's allegiance in terms of the
availability of information presented in the virtual environment, being an intensely debated
topic on content analysis ethics.
However, most social media network users choose to expose their personal data, and
this can be consider the agreement of the privacy policy of these platforms. This
confidentiality agreement places the observation of these accounts in legality, but from a
moral point of view, the goals of these social observations impose limits that need to be
considered in terms of private life and other values. In the case presented above, where the
user chose to expose his online activity, social media monitoring can be seen as an extension
of traditional media monitoring. In such cases, it can be arguing that online messages are
public acts deliberately intended for public attention and consumption.10
Regarding what has been discussed above, we can conclude that there are no universal
and general guidelines that apply to intelligence activity in the sphere of social networking.

C. Sumner, A. Byers, R. Boochever, G.J. Park, Predicting Dark Triad Personality Traits from Twitter usage and a linguistic
analysis of Tweets, Proceedings of the IEEE 11th International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications ICMLA,
2012, 34.
9

https://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1092&context=ism accesed on 12.01.2019.

10

J. Grimmelmann, Virtual Borders: The Interdependence of Real and Virtual Worlds, New York, Peer-Reviewed Journal on
the Internet, 2006,10.
 Figure 2 – public and private areas on social media

Conclusion and recommendations

The aspects analized in the present paper suggest that the analysis of the information
on social media gained a stand-alone position along with the other traditional ways of
collecting data and measuring the feelings and public opinions. Social Media Intelligence is a
process that involves identifying, collecting, and corroborating data and information on social
media networks, based on which the analyst can produce relevant information for national
security and beyond. The advantages of using SOCMINT are related to the low cost of
operations, the wide range of available information and the speed at which they can be
accessed and collected.
For organizations wich are specialised in collecting and analyzing data, it is
challenging to adapt to the new way people create and share information, admiting the fact
that social media offers the opportunity to be one step ahead of the problem.
We also discussed about the ethical issues of confidentiality, transparency, and
accountability of organizations of all kinds when it comes to analyzing social media data. We
have concluded to this topic, several references from which to go when doing such activity,
references such as respecting private life, the nature of the research conducted or the
monitoring method.
Based on the above-mentioned issues, we can conclude that the future of Social Media
Intelligence is strongly linked and dependent on the motivation of the people to present more
and more aspects of offline life in online life.

Bibliography

1. Grimmelmann, J., Virtual Borders: The Interdependence of Real and Virtual Worlds, New
York, Peer-Reviewed Journal on the Internet, 2006
2. Kosinski, M., Stillwell, D. e Graepel, T., Private Traits and attributes are predictable
from digital records of human behaviour. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences of the United States of America, 2016
3. Omand, D., Bartlett, J., Miller, C., Introducing Social Media Intelligence (SOCMINT).
Intelligence and National Security, 2012
4. Sumner, C., Byers, A., Boochever, R. e Park, G.J., Predicting Dark Triad Personality
Traits from Twitter usage and a linguistic analysis of Tweets, Proceedings of the IEEE
11th International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications ICMLA, 2012
5. Tomes, R.,R., Toward a Smarter Military, Socio-Cultural Intelligence and National
Security, The US Army War College Quarterly Parameters, Contemporary Strategy and
Land-power, 2015

Web sources

1. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1092&context=ism
2. http://career-intelligence.com/social-media-negatively-affect-career/
3. http://arnoreuser.com/publications/