800 Palestinians have been arrested based on Israeli computer program that analyzes social media posts to predict attacks
Opinion:
Arrest of Palestinians for potential terror attacks brings new meaning to ‘minority report’ /
John Brown Haaretz
800 Palestinians have been arrested by Israeli and PA security forces as a result of a computerized program that tries to predict lone-wolf attacks based on social media posts.
But how can you jail someone for a crime they haven’t committed? —
Channel 10 reported earlier this month that the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security service had arrested 400 Palestinians who were seen as lone-wolf terrorists. They were “arrested before they set out to carry out terror attacks.”
The suspects were identified through the use of a computerized program that analyzed social media posts. The station’s military correspondent, Or Heller, attributed the drop in the number of terrorist attacks to the cyberprogram. What made the story even more bizarre was the fact that a few minutes earlier, journalist Ronen Bergman – who reported the story – had said the exact opposite: That despite the system’s existence, it was impossible to identify lone-wolf attackers.
The Channel 10 report was followed by an item in Haaretz, which claimed the method had “significantly reduced” the number of terror attacks. But it hedged that claim and spoke of 400 detainees who had intended to carry out terror attacks, not that they were actively caught just before setting out to commit them. But what was lacking in these reports were the burning questions: How is it possible for Israeli security forces to arrest young Palestinians over things they have not done?
How can they be convicted of a crime when they haven’t done anything? And how is it that such a dystopian TV report could appear without any criticism? Even if the system has managed to identify several suspects who may have planned to commit a terror act (that was not carried out), that certainly doesn’t amount to “significant” results that could begin to justify such a grave violation of hundreds of detainees’ human rights.
Explaining the extent to which the approach is baseless and to which it violates any pretense of due process requires first explaining how such systems generally operate, and that there are Israeli companies working on such systems…. [long and informative article, behind a paywall, unfortunately]
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.785470 -
See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2017/04/palestinians-computer-analyzes/#sthash.rnHwsfI3.dpuf
Arrest of Palestinians for potential terror attacks brings new meaning to ‘minority report’ /
John Brown Haaretz
800 Palestinians have been arrested by Israeli and PA security forces as a result of a computerized program that tries to predict lone-wolf attacks based on social media posts.
But how can you jail someone for a crime they haven’t committed? —
Channel 10 reported earlier this month that the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security service had arrested 400 Palestinians who were seen as lone-wolf terrorists. They were “arrested before they set out to carry out terror attacks.”
The suspects were identified through the use of a computerized program that analyzed social media posts. The station’s military correspondent, Or Heller, attributed the drop in the number of terrorist attacks to the cyberprogram. What made the story even more bizarre was the fact that a few minutes earlier, journalist Ronen Bergman – who reported the story – had said the exact opposite: That despite the system’s existence, it was impossible to identify lone-wolf attackers.
The Channel 10 report was followed by an item in Haaretz, which claimed the method had “significantly reduced” the number of terror attacks. But it hedged that claim and spoke of 400 detainees who had intended to carry out terror attacks, not that they were actively caught just before setting out to commit them. But what was lacking in these reports were the burning questions: How is it possible for Israeli security forces to arrest young Palestinians over things they have not done?
How can they be convicted of a crime when they haven’t done anything? And how is it that such a dystopian TV report could appear without any criticism? Even if the system has managed to identify several suspects who may have planned to commit a terror act (that was not carried out), that certainly doesn’t amount to “significant” results that could begin to justify such a grave violation of hundreds of detainees’ human rights.
Explaining the extent to which the approach is baseless and to which it violates any pretense of due process requires first explaining how such systems generally operate, and that there are Israeli companies working on such systems…. [long and informative article, behind a paywall, unfortunately]
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.785470 -
See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2017/04/palestinians-computer-analyzes/#sthash.rnHwsfI3.dpuf
posted by Satish Sharma at
17:51
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