Big Brother?

The more I write about Freedom the more I wonder if even in America we are truly free.

I just read an article that says the Department of Homeland Security will be monitoring Twitter and Facebook language. Is this a sign of the American movement toward government madated morality or another step in a long line of injustices that invade American privacy?

According to the February 2011 Electronic Privacy Information Center there is a surveillance program that now monitors all social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook. With over 250 million people around the globe using Facebook and 600 million daily visitors to Twitter this seems to be an overstepping of boundaries. With a list of 500 words that are being monitored by "Big Brother" the issue of Freedom is becoming an important one even in American society where we have freedoms many people around the globe can only dream of.


But as many people around the world use facebook what legislation allows them to spy on people who are not even citizens of the United States?

Dean Obeidallah, who writes for CNN Opinon, states
"Two questions jump out regarding this surveillance program. How effective is it? And more importantly, is this an invasion of our privacy?
The effectiveness question is hard to answer. When you look at all the words on the watch list, it's hard to believe that any terrorist or criminal would tweet or post them unless they wanted to get caught. For example, the watch list contains words such as dirty bomb, hostage, al Qaeda and ammonium nitrate. What terrorist in his right mind would tweet, "Looking for ammonium nitrate, please direct message me if you have leads?"


He has a good point, with the rise in figurative language and double entendres, is it really even an effective tool?