The papers have been full of criticism of the incoming president of the USA, Donald Trump, and his use of social media. He’s used Twitter to criticise his critics, to slam comedy shows and to have a go at Meryl Streep.
It’s obvious that he has a wildly different style to previous presidents but one comment intrigues us: John Brennan, who is the departing director of the CIA, has warned that Trump is risking national security.
Now, we get that Brennan isn’t going to be happy with his agency being compared with the Nazis (a comparison made by Trump). But national security? We asked a couple of experts what the implications of someone shooting their mouth off on social media actually were.
Lee Munson, security researcher at Comparitech, didn’t want to comment specifically about Trump but in general when it comes to social media, he shared our scepticism. “Loose lips cost lives, or so the old saying goes, but is that really the case when politicians and other people of global significance jump on Twitter and other social media platforms? Highly unlikely, is the answer,” he said.
“While everyone has seen the odd celebrity have an online meltdown, saying something stupid in the heat of the moment, I would not expect anyone of sound mind to reveal state secrets or disseminate anything that could cost lives.
“In fact, the only entities likely to reveal information that could be seriously damaging to a nation are the likes of Edward Snowden and Wikileaks and they, it could be argued, have done the world a great service.”
Robert Schifreen, CEO and founder of SecuritySmart, was less sanguine. “Security takes many forms and we frequently neglect some of them,” he said.
“In traditional data security, for example, we often put too many resources into protecting availability at the expense of confidentiality and integrity. If you’re a politician, security is also about your reputation and the future of your party. It’s always sensible to think about what you’re about to tweet before you hit the ‘post’ button. Especially if you have access to state secrets and you’re not 100% sure that what you’re about to tweet isn’t one.”
And it’s here that the Brennan objections come back into focus. His specific problem appears to be that spontaneity can be incompatible with national security and it’s here, in taking to Twitter apparently without thinking, that a future (by which we mean “the end of this week”) Trump as president could do serious damage.
If he doesn’t start applying a common sense filter to his interactions soon, refreshing though some people find his unvarnished directness, a more serious meltdown is entirely possible.
Anonymous
If he was going to take that advice, he would have taken it a year ago. What I’m wondering is what he will do if Twitter goes out of business. Some people think that might happen in 2017.
Dee Lamphere
He has yet to tweet anything that could harm national security and I do not think he is stupid Like Hillary Clinton. Right on TV at the debates who spewed our national security response time. Now that was a definite threat to our national security, but they refuse to mention that??? Interesting indeed!!!
Peoria Dude
“He has yet…” That’s the problem, Dee. He has no self-control which is consistent with him being a narcissistic sociopath. He is a 12 year old boy in a 70 year old body and that will not change. He is an existential threat to our national security and, at a minimum, should terminate his Twitter account. The conduct of domestic and especially foreign policy should never be conducted via a medium such as Twitter. The failure of him and his team to understand this is truly frightening.
brianc6234
Hillary Clinton is the one who cost lives. Trump needs to keep doing what he’s been doing.
Shh
The same John Brennan who lied about spying on Congress? And you trust him enough to back up your opinion on security?
The same John Brennan who accused a nation of hacking because the pattern of behavior fit his pre-conceived cold war fantasies of Russian intrigue?
Your credibility rests on those you cite.
Now you’ve cited a known liar, what should I make of you?
BF
Must we troll even on this reputable site? Reading today’s posts about Russia hacking BBC lends even more concern over what (and who) else they control in public and private practices.
Hillary has gone before several tribunals and marathon sessions with all resulting in no failure at her level. This along with FBI clearing of wrongdoing should at least put this to rest. We have much bigger problems to remedy than repeating fake news headlines.
Jim
Trump is a CEO. For good or for ill, he knows how to keep secrets.
clifford cuellar
I remind you of the caveat in the quote from Lee Munson – “While everyone has seen the odd celebrity have an online meltdown, saying something stupid in the heat of the moment, I would not expect anyone of sound mind to reveal state secrets or disseminate anything that could cost lives.”
Pay closer attention to Trump’s irrational rants about perceived slights he has read in print or online or heard. Then carefully consider the expectation about a sound mind,
Mike
A well thought-out tweet can really give the impression of being spontaneous.
Mahhn
As insane as it is, I’m liking that he says what he thinks, even when he says things he shouldn’t. It means we might get more honesty out of him than the last bunch of goofs in office.
4caster
Twitter is aptly named. It is for any twit whose attention span is limited to 140 characters.
Chuck
I am AMAZED to hear people say things like “Hillary costed lives” and that sort of nonsense. The Benghazi Committee was a hoaz and was nothing more than a political stunt to drive her 67% approval rating down. And they bragged about it publicly a few times.. Their own committee came back with their final report and debunked every single wacky, nutty conspiracy theory that the GOP conjured up.
As for her email server? How about the three email servers that the RNC set up, secretly, for the Bush Admin.? There were 88 email accounts all communicating to each other without leaving those servers, avoiding the .gov account entirely. Then when it was discovered, they were held in contempt of court for not turning over emails. And then, 22 million emails mysteriously turned up missing. But they were eventually recovered and are suppose to be released in 2021. Pres. Obama made a deal because the world economy was in free fall and he didn’t want to have to deal with the FOIA requests and all of the legal hassles.. But as you can imagine, there is all kinds of classified information in those accounts and clearly there were be discussions about using fake intel to start wars in the Middle East.
Colin Powell, his staff, and Condi’s staff all used public email accounts that scan emails for content and share data with third parties. Classified data was found in those accounts but we’ll never know how much was actually there because most of the emails are unrecoverable. According to James Comey, there were attempts to hack Hillary but she was not hacked. However, he said that employees in the State Dept. who were using these public email accounts were all hacked, including Colin Powell. Hillary was the first employee in the State Dept to turn over all of her personal and work emails (in response to a witch hunt), and she also had an encrypted backup.
As for Trump. He has a personality disorder and will never change. Everything is always about him. It’s just the way he is. It amazes me that anyone would vote for him or ever expect him to somehow change allof a sudden at his age.