Twitter Declared “No Longer a Terrorist Threat” by State Department

Ok, maybe I lied a little in the title.  But that is basically what they have said.  Here’s the backstory for those that missed it or forgot it.

Last year, several reports came out that the US Army was concerned that terrorists could use Twitter for organization and potential “targeting”.  This quote says it all. “Extremist and terrorist use of Twitter could evolve over time to reflect tactics that are already evolving in use by hacktivists and activists for surveillance,” it said. “This could theoretically be combined with targeting.” This quote was from a US Army intelligence report.  View the entire report here.  Skip to pages 8 and 9 to view the Twitter information.  The report was covered by many large news outlets (here, here, here and here).

Now fast forward to the present.  Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter is in Bagdad speaking about how his service could help the people of Iraq.  Now before you get your undies in a bunch, I am not saying that the people in Iraq are terrorists.  I am saying that the US government went from condemning the service to supporting it in a matter of months.  The article says “Their trip to Iraq’s capital, sponsored by the State Department, was billed as a way to assess the faint stirrings of Iraq’s online culture and possibly inspire future Iraqi Web entrepreneurs.”  Read the article here.

So I wonder who got to them.  Was Ashton Kutcher?  Were they afraid of getting “Punked”?  Well, it wouldn’t be the first time.