Twitter cuts off intelligence agencies from data feed

Twitter has cut off U.S. intelligence agencies from a data feed that provides real-time information of events around the world produced by Twitter users, including Islamic extremists such as ISIS that are increasingly active on social media.

The service is provided by a company called Dataminr, which also has contracts to provide data to news organizations, including CNN, and investors and government first responders. For instance, Dataminr provided early alerts to the terror attacks at the Brussels airport and in Paris.

The cutoff of data by Twitter was first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Sunday night.

Twitter said it was a longstanding company policy to deny data for government surveillance.

"We have never authorized Dataminr or any third party to sell data to a government or intelligence agency for surveillance purposes," Twitter said in a statement to CNNMoney.

Dataminr, which did not respond to requests for comment, uses proprietary algorithms to instantly analyze tweets and send alerts of events and emerging trends. It is not clear whether the data feed that Dataminr had been providing intelligence agencies differs from what it makes available to other customers.

Link to article: http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/09/technology/twitter-dataminr-intelligence-agencies/index.html