China Mines Social Media Data For Info On Foreign Targets: Report

The report states that the Chinese state media software program mines Twitter and Facebook to create a database of foreign journalists and academics.

China is mining Western social media to equip its military and police with information on foreign targets, according to a new report by The Washington Post.

This revelation was made following the review of hundreds of Chinese bidding documents, contracts, and company filings.

This new report says that China maintains a nationwide network of data surveillance services that were developed over the past decade and are used domestically to warn officials of politically sensitive information online.

The software, which targets domestic Internet users and media, also collects data on foreign targets from sources such as Twitter, Facebook, and other Western social media.