Topic: Social Media Monitoring

The city of West Sacramento has implemented a program called ZenCity, which uses algorithms to monitor public social media posts for community concerns like mailbox thefts and potholes. While city leaders frame it as a way to hear citizen signals, the ACLU has raised concerns about the potential for surveillance and misuse of data. The technology is described as a sophisticated keyword "grep" rather than true artificial intelligence.

The United States Secret Service issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for software capable of detecting sarcasm on social media. While the news was met with skepticism regarding the technical feasibility of such a tool, the official documentation confirms the agency's interest in advanced sentiment analysis.

A leaked proposal from the lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford to the American Bankers Association outlines a $850,000 plan to counter the Occupy Wall Street movement. The strategy includes "sophisticated monitoring" of social media to identify extreme language and develop "actionable intelligence." The hosts mock the high cost for what they describe as basic Twitter trend analysis and PowerPoint reporting.