TCP Episode 129 -- Social Media Monitoring: Can It Prevent School Shootings?

Listen to this episode on Cybertraps.com, Apple Podcast, or your podcast platform of choice.

Show Notes

The Uvalde School Shooting -- A Trove of Social Media Content

• Gunman posted ominous photos of rifles and other messages on Instagram
• He privately messaged a young woman that he planned to attack an elementary school
• He used Yubo to threaten school shootings and show off a rifle

Context

• Social media is one element of a complex problem
• Uvalde already used security tech, including:
  ** Raptor Technologies, for monitoring visitors
  ** Social Sentinel, for identifying social media threats
• Challenges posed by new, less-easily monitored online channels
  ** Increased use of end-to-end encryption even on more well-established sites, like WhatsApp, Apple Messenger, Signal, etc. Facebook wants to make E2E encryption the default for Instagram and Facebook Messenger as well. Law enforcement is opposed.
  ** FaceTime
  ** Yubo
  ** Snapchat
  ** Instagram direct messaging
  ** Discord
  ** Twitch
  ** "They are fundamentally designed to keep communications private, presenting different challenges than Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, where violent screeds and videos have been algorithmically amplified to millions of viewers."
  ** "The way that generation uses social media more generally could render years of work to spot and identify public signs of upcoming violence obsolete, social media experts warn."

Responses

• Culture of cybersafety
• Department of Justice School Violence Prevention Program may provide funding
• Increased interest in social media surveillance products. However:
  ** No solid evidence that they work
  ** May have built-in racial biases in algorithms
  ** Helps to create a culture of surveillance
  ** Conditions children that surveillance is the norm
  ** Creates conditions (cameras, metal detectors, full-time police presence) that can make school feel like a prison
  ** Surveillance technology more commonly used to punish minor infractions
• Use of AI and algorithm-driven products
  ** Facial recognition
  ** Gun detection systems (scans of security camera footage)
• Pandemic has driven surveillance in effort to keep kids masked and socially-distanced
• Researchers argue that surveillance measures lower student performance
  Resources
• Dr. Glenn Lipson. You can listen to Dr. Lipsen discuss some of these issues with Jethro Jones and Frederick Lane on the following podcast episodes:
  ** TCP Episode 109 -- Keeping Kids Safe with Dr. Glenn Lipson
  ** TCP Episode 107 -- Threat Assessment Challenges in Schools with Dr. Glenn Lipson
  ** TCP Episode 005 -- The Power of Connection with Dr. Glenn Lipson
• 2 June 2022 -- The problem with schools turning to surveillance after mass shootings
• 28 May 2022 -- Chilling new footage shows Texas gunman Salvador Ramos during shirtless video call with 15-year-old German girl on social media app Yubo - days before he told her about his school massacre plans
• 28 May 2022 -- Texas gunman had threatened school shootings on social media, reports say
• 27 May 2022 -- The Gunman in Uvalde Left Multiple Hints Before His Attack Began
• 26 May 2022 -- As young gunmen turn toward new social networks, old safeguards fail
• 22 May 2022 -- NYC Mayor Eric Adams slams social media after Texas school shooting