Twitter has again hugged the headlines when it blocked U.S. intelligence services from using its partly owned Dataminr, a data analytics tool which analyzes massive volumes of social media content to detect developing news and trends in real time.
A report from Wall Street Journal Sunday said that the initiative was confirmed by a U.S. intelligence senior official and some people with knowledge of the matter.
Dataminr is used in analyzing Twitter traffic for different clients, but it is not offered directly by the social media site. It is actually a private firm where the social media network only owns a five percent stake.
U.S. law enforcement is one of its clients and the social media site became concerned about being regarded as cozying or getting too close to federal agencies. This perception could have an adverse impact on its user trust, according to ZDNet.
The service provided by Dataminr is being utilized by news organizations such as CNN as well as investors and government first responders. Its services were used in the Brussels and Paris terrorist attacks where it provided early alerts to government authorities.
The barring of data to federal agencies was first reported by the Wall Street Journal Sunday night. According to Twitter, the company has a long standing company policy that allows them 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," said the social media site in a statement to CNNMoney.
Dataminr has not yet responded to requests for comment. This service uses proprietary algorithms to immediately analyze tweets and then send alerts of events and developing trends.
It is unclear if the data feed that it provides intelligence agencies are the same with what it provides the rest of its customers.
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