Module 3: Case Study on Intelligence in a Globally Interconnected Society

The Facebook Entanglement, A Failure of Imagination?

Discussion Board February 24, 2020 March 11, 2020

During the previous two modules, we explored the traditional concepts of national intelligence collection and sharing (Module 1) and we looked at how we may need to broaden our collection and sharing considerations due to the dynamic influence of digital technology (Module 2).

In Module 3, we will take a deep dive into the activities of social media giant, Facebook and explore how impactful digital technology can be when it is used by Nation States or other hostile actors to both collect intelligence, as well as use it as a platform to influence policies and communities.

As you explore the Facebook story, consider how well prepared we are in meeting intelligence challenges conducted through social media.  Is there effective government oversight, or is social media allowing information to be weaponized  (or cause upheaval) against the U.S. and other countries?

Review the Facebook activity both before, during and after revelations of how the company was being used by the Russian government.  Consider Facebooks initial response and if delays in making changes to operations at the company may have an impact on the U.S. in the future (Anticipatory Intelligence).

C.  Lets begin by assessing what happened, why did it happen (for example, a failure of imagination on our part for not anticipating how Facebook could be used?), how it was allowed to continue through a process of delays, denial and deflection (perhaps a lack of internal governance or insufficient regulatory oversight?) and explore the breadth of the impact (is there more to come?).

See: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/technology/facebook-data-russia-election-racism.html

https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-scandals-2018/

Assess the impact and influence on U.S. politics and communities (Intelligence and Social/Political Influencing)
See:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/17/us/politics/russia-2016-influence-campaign.html

Assess the impact and influence on U.S. business (Intelligence and economic/business influencing)
Evaluate the ability of Facebook to initially cover-up internal issues and later undermine activities of anti-Facebook groups
See:

https://businessmirror.com.ph/2018/11/19/a-look-inside-the-tactics-of-definers-facebooks-attack-dog/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/technology/facebook-privacy.html

D.  Consider political influencing committed through Facebook that may have impacted social unrest in Myanmar and efforts of Iranian trolls to impact the U.S.

See:

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/06/27/facebook-cant-resolve-conflicts-in-myanmar-and-sri-lanka-on-its-own/

E.  In Security Management magazine, January, 2019, a member of the editorial staff, Megan Gates, explored The Privacy Problem and the need to create stronger privacy regulations to protect users and their data.  In the article, Gates also looked back at the role Facebook played in Myanmars social unrest and she described how Facebook is now independently taking efforts to build their own governance and accountability and improve enforcement of content policies because there is no current regulatory framework or legal guidance requiring such action.

Consider Megan Gates remarks in light of the activities of Facebook.  Are global social media and digital technology giants today too powerful to control?
Considering how social media can be used as intelligence tools for hostile state actors, should these giants be left to self-governance or is there a need for comprehensive U.S. regulatory guidance?
Required Reading

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/technology/facebook-data-russia-election-racism.html

https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-scandals-2018/

https://businessmirror.com.ph/2018/11/19/a-look-inside-the-tactics-of-definers-facebooks-attack-dog/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/17/us/politics/russia-2016-influence-campaign.html

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/06/27/facebook-cant-resolve-conflicts-in-myanmar-and-sri-lanka-on-its-own/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/technology/facebook-privacy.html

BASED ON ABOVE – RESPOND TO FOLLOWING PROMPT:

When we look back at the nation state manipulations and the privacy data access concerns involving the social media giant, Facebook, we can glean from the articles and research that there were several instances when questionable activity was brought to the attention of the company’s leadership, yet the problems persisted.  During our discussion board in Module 1, our colleague Pamela Reininger commented that private industry, “…needs to be encouraged and aided in developing the most sophisticated detection systems and there has to be a robust interchange of information between the US and private business.”  Given Facebooks’ response after detecting intelligence and privacy issues, should such a public/private exchange be mandatory and regulated by the government?  Would effective government intelligence collection and sharing requirements have reduced the negative influences that occurred through Facebook?

Please cite articles from above in buttressing your argument.

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Instructions
No directly quoted material may be used in this project paper.

Resources should be summarized or paraphrased with appropriate in-text and Resource page citations.

Final Project: Case Study

Ethical dilemmas permeate the criminal justice. At every level, in each segment of the system, people are exercising discretion that will influence the fate of an individual and/or the security of the community. Incongruous laws, regulations, policies and practices create conflicts and distort the basis upon which judgments are made. Very often these conflicts result in an ethical dilemma. Which is the appropriate course of action? What is the moral/ethical rational for the decisions that were made? What purposes or principles are served? This project will ask you to consider a sequence of decisions (do, or not do) all of which contribute, directly or indirectly the final scene.

For each of the three (3) scenarios, your assignment is to:

Examine each situation and describe the ethical and/or moral question,
Describe what you believe to be the motivation of the actor and the potential consequences of BOTH/EACH options,
Identify the decision you believe the actor SHOULD make, and
Provide the ethical basis for your decision.
Connect the ethical basis for your decision to ethical theories introduced at the beginning of the course and explain the rational for this connection.
Each decision must be considered separately and not be influenced by earlier decisions and/or actions.
This project is an opportunity for the student to demonstrate their understanding of ethics and value-based decisions. Most of these situations do not have a single correct answer. Grading is NOT based on solving the problem that is presented to the actor but in identifying the ethical dilemmas and determining and explaining the most ethical course of action.

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1. The judge

Judge Jeffery Owens is very troubled by the felony case before him.  The defendant, Woodrow Wilson, had been found guilty of armed robbery of a liquor store.  The case alleged that Wilson had a handgun in plain sight when he entered the Sin-Yon liquor store, that he hit the owner in the head with the weapon and forced him to open the cash drawer. Fleeing the scene on foot, Woodrow only got a few blocks before responding police officers spotted him and made the arrest. The prosecutor, armed with the recovered cash, video surveillance and an eyewitness as evidence had an easy case. Now it is time for sentencing.

Jeffery saw the demonstration of business owners in the hallway when he entered the courthouse that morning. They were chanting Justice for our victims and were demanding a lengthy prison sentence. The Pre-Sentence Investigation report said Wilson was suffering from acute addiction and associated mental problems that had caused these violent (but not criminal) outbreaks in the past. There is no information in the file that Wilson has ever received treatment for his disorders. Jeffery knows that, due to budget cuts, the state prison system has very little in the way of addictive or behavioral disorder treatment programs. The prisons had reverted to merely warehousing inmates. However, he had read that the county jail had received a federal grant to establish exactly the kind of services that it appeared Wilson needed. Obviously, he had no way of knowing if this or any treatment would be successful for Wilson.

Sentencing guidelines were established to ensure that defendants convicted of similar offenses received similar punishments. According to the sentencing guidelines, Wilson should be sentenced to 5-7 years in the state correctional prison system. Jeffery knows that the business community was calling for the maximum sentence. The county jail only took inmates sentenced to eighteen months or less. What sentence should Judge Owens impose on Mr. Wilson? 

2. The District Attorney

Jessica ran a successful campaign for district attorney on a very conservative platform generally critical of the incumbent’s inability or unwillingness to prosecute police misconduct with criminal charges. The citys police chief did not support her campaign. He felt that administrative actions that could result is fines, suspensions, demotion or termination of employment were sufficient punishment. Additionally, victims could sue an officer in civil court if the officer acted outside the scope of their authority and immunity.  The chief felt that these consequences should be sufficient for any police misconduct except, perhaps, a felony. Since her election Jessica has brought criminal charges of larceny against one officer for switching city tires off his patrol car on to his personal car. She also brought assault charges against an officer when she learned a suspect needed medical treatment for wrist abrasions due to her handcuffs being too tight. Recently several assistants have cautioned her that they are losing criminal cases, including serious felony cases, because police officers are either not appearing to testify at court or are having “difficulty remembering” critical details during their testimony. This started in traffic court but has also occurred in misdemeanor trials as well. The feeling is these officers are retaliating against the district attorney’s officer for the criminal charges being brought against members of the police force.  The pattern is quite clear and getting worse. Prosecutors are complaining that police detectives are too busy to return their calls. Jessica understands she cannot successfully prosecute criminal cases without the cooperation of the police department. At the same time, she feels as though she is being bullied by an overly protective autocratic police chief. She feels she can and should prosecute police officer for any criminal offense …and feels that her election demonstrated that the community agrees with her. What should Jessica do?

3. The Officer

Scot is still on probation as a police department rookie. While on probation he can be dismissed at any time for any reason and would not be entitled to a trail board or hearing prior to dismissal.

During the course of his patrol duties Scot has cause to stop a car for a legitimate but minor traffic violation. The motorist was highly agitated at being stopped for no reason and, using a variety of obscene references and racial slurs, adamantly expressed how upset he was. Agitated, Scot told the man to exit the vehicle and place his hands on the hood of his car. Scot looked through the car interior, and then took the keys out of the ignition to open the trunk. Seeing what Scot was doing the driver told Scot to stop and that he could absolutely not search the trunk of the car.  Ignoring this, Scot opened the trunk and discovered in plain view a large, clear plastic bag containing thousands of pharmaceutical-type capsules. Scot could hear the driver screaming, That aint mine. That aint mine.  Scot suddenly realized he has committed an illegal search. What should Scot do?

Format Requirements

A minimum of 10 full narrative text pages
Double space
12 pt. font
1 margins
Use American Psychological Association (APA) citation format for all narrative and Reference Page sources
Reference Page is not included in the word count
NOTE: For a formal paper, an introduction paragraph and a closing paragraph are always appropriate.

Additionally – Create a cover page for your assignment (not included in word count)

Include your name
Course title and number
Project title
Date of submission

Answer to each of:
Is the title suitable for studying?
Are references used from various sources documented?
Is documentation of references was appropriate?
Was documentation inside the text appropriate?
Topic, what is its importance?
What is the importance of the results that the writer came out with?
Who are the beneficiaries of this topic?
What is the year in which the author wrote and where was the publication? Where is it published?
Does the place where the article was published have a scientific reputation?
Is there a tip for the writer?

For this assignment, you are required to interview and write a profile of an individual who has been impacted by a collateral consequence of conviction. This can be a person who has been disenfranchised from the vote, blocked from gainful employment, subjected to a civil asset forfeiture proceeding, wrongfully convicted, or affected by some other documented collateral consequence.

This assignment will have two deliverables: (i) an interview schedule and (ii) the profile story. The interview schedule consists of a list of questions that serves as a guide to what topics and issues you will ask your respondent. Tips for developing an interview schedule are available here. You will have to decide whether you will record the interview or take notes; the preceding guide offers some pros and cons on that decision. The profile will detail background on the individual and offer a compelling story about the individual’s personal experiences and struggles with collateral consequences. Useful guides for developing your profile are available here and here. You may also seek out other resources on your own.

Your profile is limited to 2,500 words, not including title page (include word count at end of profile). You have a lot of leeway as to how this document is organized and structured, but use the guidelines linked here to begin that framing process. Stylistically, your paper should be double-spaced, use Times New Roman 12-point font, have one-inch margins all around, and include page numbers. You should append your interview schedule to the end of your profile (this does not apply toward word count).

The profile must be of a living person, who you can interview in-person, over the phone, through web interface, etc. You will have to decide how long the interview should be, keeping in mind not to overburden the respondent. If you are having difficulty identifying an impacted individual, please contact me early so we can discuss.

Tips for developing an interview schedule are available here. Useful guides for developing your profile are available here and here.

https://sociology.fas.harvard.edu/files/sociology/files/interview_strategies.pdf

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/writing-a-compelling-profile-of-a-person-2316038

https://www.thoughtco.com/writing-engaging-personality-profiles-2073876