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Uncategorized Wednesday, February 29th 2012 at 11:50 am

Homeland Security’s Long, Long List of Social Media Watch Words

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Everybody knows that you don’t say “bomb” at an airport. It’s just a bad idea. But how about social media? You can say anything you want there, can’t you? You should be able to figure out the answer to that question. The answer is, yes, technically you can, but if you say certain things, the Department of Homeland Security is going to take notice. We’ve known for a while that the government has had its eye on social media and after Leigh Van Bryan was arrested for tweeting the words “destroy” and “America” in that order, it became clear that tweets can be taken very, very seriously, but how many words could possibly be on the DHS’s watch-list. A bunch. A whole bunch.

Thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, some documentation pertaining to social media monitoring was released, documentation that just happened to contain the full list — presumably — of words that the DHS likes to keep an eye on. Ostensibly, this isn’t expressly for hunting down potential terrorists and other ne’er-do-wells, but rather for monitoring trends in general — meme tracking — and keeping any eye on the way events unfold on social media. That being said, if you use any of these buzzwords, it’s more than likely that some suit is taking a gander at your text, so remember: Sedition Free is the Way to Be!

Without further ado, here’s a full list of buzzwords organized by the topic with which they are associated, as far as the DHS is concerned:

DHS & Other Agencies

  • Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
  • Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
  • Coast Guard (USCG)
  • Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
  • Border Patrol
  • Secret Service (USSS)
  • National Operations Center (NOC)
  • Homeland Defense
  • Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE)
  • Agent
  • Task Force
  • Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
  • Fusion Center
  • Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
  • Secure Border Initiative (SBI)
  • Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
  • Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF)
  • U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS)
  • Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS)
  • Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
  • Air Marshal
  • Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
  • National Guard
  • Red Cross
  • United Nations (UN)

Domestic Security

  • Assassination
  • Attack
  • Domestic security
  • Drill
  • Exercise
  • Cops
  • Law enforcement
  • Authorities
  • Disaster assistance
  • Disaster management
  • DNDO (Domestic Nuclear Detection Office)
  • National preparedness
  • Mitigation
  • Prevention
  • Response
  • Recovery
  • Dirty Bomb
  • Domestic nuclear detection
  • Emergency management
  • Emergency response
  • First responder
  • Homeland security
  • Maritime domain awareness (MDA)
  • National preparedness initiative
  • Militia
  • Shooting
  • Shots fired
  • Evacuation
  • Deaths
  • Hostage
  • Explosion (explosive)
  • Police
  • Disaster medical assistance team (DMAT)
  • Organized crime
  • Gangs
  • National security
  • State of emergency
  • Security
  • Breach
  • Threat
  • Standoff
  • SWAT
  • Screening
  • Lockdown
  • Bomb (squad or threat)
  • Crash
  • Looting
  • Riot
  • Emergency Landing
  • Pipe bomb
  • Incident
  • Facility

HAZMAT & Nuclear

  • Hazmat
  • Nuclear
  • Chemical Spill
  • Suspicious package/device
  • Toxic
  • National laboratory
  • Nuclear facility
  • Nuclear threat
  • Cloud
  • Plume
  • Radiation
  • Radioactive
  • Leak
  • Biological infection (or event)
  • Chemical
  • Chemical burn
  • Biological
  • Epidemic
  • Hazardous
  • Hazardous material incident
  • Industrial spill
  • Infection
  • Powder (white)
  • Gas
  • Spillover
  • Anthrax
  • Blister agent
  • Exposure
  • Burn
  • Nerve agent
  • Ricin
  • Sarin
  • North Korea

Health Concern + H1N1

  • Outbreak
  • Contamination
  • Exposure
  • Virus
  • Evacuation
  • Bacteria
  • Recall
  • Ebola
  • Food Poisoning
  • Foot and Mouth (FMD)
  • H5N1
  • Avian
  • Flu
  • Salmonella
  • Small Pox
  • Plague
  • Human to human
  • Human to ANIMAL
  • Influenza
  • Center for Disease Control (CDC)
  • Drug Administration (FDA)
  • Public Health
  • Toxic
  • Agro Terror
  • Tuberculosis (TB)
  • Agriculture
  • Listeria
  • Symptoms
  • Mutation
  • Resistant
  • Antiviral
  • Wave
  • Pandemic
  • Infection
  • Water/air borne
  • Sick
  • Swine
  • Pork
  • Strain
  • Quarantine
  • H1N1
  • Vaccine
  • Tamiflu
  • Norvo Virus
  • Epidemic
  • World Health Organization (WHO and components)
  • Viral Hemorrhagic Fever
  • E. Coli

Infrastructure Security

  • Infrastructure security
  • Airport
  • CIKR (Critical Infrastructure & Key Resources)
  • AMTRAK
  • Collapse
  • Computer infrastructure
  • Communications infrastructure
  • Telecommunications
  • Critical infrastructure
  • National infrastructure
  • Metro
  • WMATA
  • Airplane (and derivatives)
  • Chemical fire
  • Subway
  • BART
  • MARTA
  • Port Authority
  • NBIC (National Biosurveillance Integration Center)
  • Transportation security
  • Grid
  • Power
  • Smart
  • Body scanner
  • Electric
  • Failure or outage
  • Black out
  • Brown out
  • Port
  • Dock
  • Bridge
  • Canceled
  • Delays
  • Service disruption
  • Power lines

Southwest Border Violence

  • Drug cartel
  • Violence
  • Gang
  • Drug
  • Narcotics
  • Cocaine
  • Marijuana
  • Heroin
  • Border
  • Mexico
  • Cartel
  • Southwest
  • Juarez
  • Sinaloa
  • Tijuana
  • Torreon
  • Yuma
  • Tucson
  • Decapitated
  • U.S. Consulate
  • Consular
  • El Paso
  • Fort Hancock
  • San Diego
  • Ciudad Juarez
  • Nogales
  • Sonora
  • Colombia
  • Mara salvatrucha
  • MS13 or MS-13
  • Drug war
  • Mexican army
  • Methamphetamine
  • Cartel de Golfo
  • Gulf Cartel
  • La Familia
  • Reynose
  • Nuevo Leon
  • Narcos
  • Narco banners (Spanish equivalents)
  • Los Zetas
  • Shootout
  • Execution
  • Gunfight
  • Trafficking
  • Kidnap
  • Calderon
  • Reyosa
  • Bust
  • Tamaulipas
  • Meth Lab
  • Drug trade
  • Illegal immigrants
  • Smuggling (smugglers)
  • Matamoros
  • Michoacana
  • Guzman
  • Arellano-Felix
  • Beltran-Leyva
  • Barrio Azteca
  • Artistics Assassins
  • Mexicles
  • New Federation

Terrorism

  • Terrorism
  • Al Queda (all spellings)
  • Terror
  • Attack
  • Iraq
  • Afghanistan
  • Iran
  • Pakistan
  • Agro
  • Environmental terrorist
  • Eco terrorism
  • Conventional weapon
  • Target
  • Weapons grade
  • Dirty bomb
  • Enriched
  • Nuclear
  • Chemical weapon
  • Biological weapon
  • Ammonium nitrate
  • Improvised explosive device
  • IED (Improvised Explosive Device)
  • Abu Sayyaf
  • Hamas
  • FARC (Armed Revolutionary Forces Colombia)
  • IRA (Irish Republican Army)
  • ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna)
  • Basque Separatists
  • Hezbollah
  • Tamil Tiger
  • PLF (Palestine Liberation Front)
  • PLO (Palestine Libration Organization)
  • Car bomb
  • Jihad
  • Taliban
  • Weapons cache
  • Suicide bomber
  • Suicide attack
  • Suspicious substance
  • AQAP (Al Qaeda Arabian Peninsula)
  • AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb)
  • TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan)
  • Yemen
  • Pirates
  • Extremism
  • Somalia
  • Nigeria
  • Radicals
  • Al-Shabaab
  • Home grown
  • Plot
  • Nationalist
  • Recruitment
  • Fundamentalism
  • Islamist

Weather/Disaster/Emergency

  • Emergency
  • Hurricane
  • Tornado
  • Twister
  • Tsunami
  • Earthquake
  • Tremor
  • Flood
  • Storm
  • Crest
  • Temblor
  • Extreme weather
  • Forest fire
  • Brush fire
  • Ice
  • Stranded/Stuck
  • Help
  • Hail
  • Wildfire
  • Tsunami Warning Center
  • Magnitude
  • Avalanche
  • Typhoon
  • Shelter-in-place
  • Disaster
  • Snow
  • Blizzard
  • Sleet
  • Mud slide or Mudslide
  • Erosion
  • Power outage
  • Brown out
  • Warning
  • Watch
  • Lightening
  • Aid
  • Relief
  • Closure
  • Interstate
  • Burst
  • Emergency Broadcast System

Cyber Security

  • Cyber security
  • Botnet
  • DDOS (dedicated denial of service)
  • Denial of service
  • Malware
  • Virus
  • Trojan
  • Keylogger
  • Cyber Command
  • 2600
  • Spammer
  • Phishing
  • Rootkit
  • Phreaking
  • Cain and abel
  • Brute forcing
  • Mysql injection
  • Cyber attack
  • Cyber terror
  • Hacker
  • China
  • Conficker
  • Worm
  • Scammers
  • Social media

(via Hubze Social Media Blog)

Relevant to your interests

Filed Under | • •
  • Erin

    Thank you.  

  • Erin

    I can’t help but wonder why “America” nor “United States” appears on the list.  Sort of strange, no?

  • Jackbondnj16

    I will now make a Facebook post, warning everyone not to use any of those words……….

  • http://www.tiny-threads.com Steve

    If the site goes down within the next 24 hours, I’m blaming this blog post.

  • Brent Stewart

    I’m sure there’s some genius out there now writing a song and trying to use all of those words in the lyrics.

    Honestly though… The DHS can stick it. This isn’t Nazi Germany. I can talk about whatever the hell I want as long as it’s talk and not inciting action on said talk.

  • Jay Stevens

    So:
    “I decided to travel by airplane between El Paso and Tuscon so I took Southwest but my flight was delayed by a power outage caused by a brush fire.” And I am in real trouble.

    No matter. I am already on “their” list because I am a politically conservative, former military believer in the Second Amendment.

    Jay Stevens,
    U. S. Army, ret.

  • http://Geekosystem.com Eric Limer

    Probably to keep on eye on their proximity to phrases like “destroy” and “death to”.

  • MrCromin

    There is something fun/awesome that 2600 is on the watch list. Emmanual Goldstiein ftw

  • Anonymous

    If you can appreciate the beauty in both men and women and find yourself attracted to the person regardless of their gender, then Datebi*cO’M is the site for you. Here you can find hundreds of thousands of open-minded singles & couples looking to explore their bisexuality.

  • E H

    Also to eliminate the obvious millions of “We love….” comments.

  • AAA

    Everyone copy and paste that list repeatedly and keep Big Sis busy.

  • Cthulhu

     Even better, you should ensure that EVERY post includes one or more of these, so that they have to pick a more relevant and useful set.

  • Anonymous

    I think it should be considered to be more suspicious if someone is actually able to communicate without using any of the words on that list, but I might give Charlie Brown’s teacher a pass.  Then again … maybe they should bring her in for a little questioning.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=587990296 Sean Christopher Minaker

    i say copy every word on the list post it and see what happens?!

  • Richard_waters

    Lists like these could leave you speechless. 

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_PR4RC3AFFRK5UU7CYXJ3DYEZ24 JayG

    I say everyone use the whole list in  your updates and flood their channels. HAHAHAHA. Let the fun begin!

  • Tabby_haut

    You are letting the government control what you say, last time I checked we had the freedom of speech….

  • Amolloy

    gee. kinda makes me want to write a huge poem in which all these words would be used.  we could have a contest: who writes the best poem.  

  • Barbbelen

    I think I will use several of these words daily and so should everyone…keep dhs busy!

  • N1hef

    welp, there goes Facebook.  Nobody will be able to talk about anything without tripping one of the “Dirty Wordes You Can Say in ####### (in reference to Goerge Carlins 7 dirty words, ###### is the country which we live in but cant said over the ……OOPs almost said the ######### word

  • N1hef

    OOoooooo what you said, …………………….. Your gona hell for that one.

  • V12hp

    I almost want to get on Facebook and just type every one of these words in succession into a status just to see what happens….. LOL almost.

  • Nanny Meow

    So when I put on social network last week that I had been taken ill after being released from hospital too early just two hours after being under general anaesthetic, this flagged up across the atlantic? And talking about a day at the beach or DIY could also be flagged – there are some innocent words with more than one meaning on the list!

  • Tom Paine

    What would happen if we made a point of using all those words in posts every day — would their data monitoring system choke to death????

  • http://www.facebook.com/merlyn.graves Merlyn Graves

    Full list posted on facebook. Feel Free to share :: grin ::

  • mikrat

    Post all of these to your emails as part of your SIGNATURE.
    Overload the system – fuck DHS.

  • http://www.facebook.com/kedwa30 Kenneth Edwards

    Does anyone actually think the Freedom of Information Act works? The government feels it is above the law. If this is the real list of watch words then why isn’t “destroy America” on the list? I figured it out as soon as I couldn’t find the words “hacktivist” or “anonymous” anywhere on the list either.

  • scott G

    post often

  • d

    DDOS is distributed denial of service

  • NoticesThings

    There’s a lot of synonyms for poop on that list. Just an observation.

  • Eli Powell

    God damn. You can’t say “smart”?

  • Max Johnson

    people need to remember that these laws are In place to protect us. They aren’t going to arrest you just for using these words, but it helps them have a better chance at stopping terrorism before it happens. Stop complaining about it and accept it for what it is: a means of protection against terrorism against us as Americans.

  • bananasmoothie

    fuck this shit. i’m posting these words every day.

  • bananasmoothie

    but really. these words make no sense? social media? social media? wtf.

  • bananasmoothie

    lol. pirates? they gonna be checkin’ on a lot of preteens.

  • Anon

    What a coincidence, Jay! I’m on their list too because I’m politically liberal, who believes in tightening restrictions on the second amendment.

    I hate to say it friend, but I think we’re just all on the list because they don’t like us. Not because they want to protect us.

    From a lib to a cons:
    We’re in this together.

  • http://www.facebook.com/garyspuppy Gary Rae Jones

    If this were true, then it would only apply to certain people under watch already. Otherwise the monitoring bureau would have to hire half the world in order to monitor everybody who uses Facebook. Billions of people folks….would need more manpower than is accessible.

  • http://12160.info/ Mark Cob

    “Smart” “Loaded” “Exploding” “grassroots” “Bomb” up that “Terrorist”"Napolitanos” phat “a$$”