In this blog, our seasoned Tradecraft Advisor explores the pervasive presence of gang-related activity on social media. Join us as we uncover best practices for documenting, mitigating, and tracking gang activity online, leveraging advanced OSINT tools to turn the tide in favor of law enforcement.
How Much Gang-Related Activity is Really on Social Media?
In today’s digital age, social media is a double-edged sword for gang-related activities. On one hand, it serves as a powerful tool for gangs to connect, recruit, assert dominance, and pick fights. Conversely, it provides law enforcement with a treasure trove of information to track and dismantle these groups. Unfortunately, though, the sheer volume of content within this trove is often too large for law enforcement to sift through in a timely manner. This blog post explores some best practices for law enforcement analysts and investigators who are tasked with documenting gang activity online, and mitigating and tracking its impact offline.
Request our exposing networks through publicly available information flash briefing
It’s Human Nature to Share and Connect
Humans are inherently social beings. We have an innate desire to share our experiences and connect with others with similar interests or backgrounds, and gang members are no different. Social media platforms offer a space for gang members to share their interactions publicly in order to:
- Showcase Their Lifestyle: Gang members often post photos and videos flaunting their wealth, weapons, and drug use. This boosts their status within the gang and serves as a recruitment tool to attract new members.
- Communicate and Coordinate: Social media allows for instant communication, making it easier for gang members to coordinate activities, plan crimes, and issue threats to rivals.
- Build a Sense of Community: By sharing their experiences and connecting with others, gang members reinforce their sense of belonging and loyalty to the gang.
While none of these activities are inherently illegal, the information shared in these posts and interactions can form a solid foundation for investigators looking to learn more about a crime or unravel a criminal network.
Request our Monitoring Transnational Organized Crime Case Study
Exploiting Social Media: A Law Enforcement Perspective
While social media provides gangs with numerous advantages, this volume of online posting and interaction also creates vulnerabilities. Here are some ways in which law enforcement agencies leverage social media to combat gang activity:
- Surveillance: By searching for, collecting, and documenting relevant posts, comments, and interactions, law enforcement agencies can identify key groups, understand gang hierarchies, and uncover planned criminal activities.
- Deep Dive into Key Individuals: The connections and content found on social media provides ample information that can be used to find key individuals and their associate’s in real life.
Request our Social Media Intelligence Industry Brief
Taking the Technological Advantage
Manually conducting online gang investigations often requires staffing and time that law enforcement entities don’t have. This is where advanced OSINT technologies like Fivecast ONYX come into play.
Fivecast Discovery, a capability of Fivecast ONYX is a new comprehensive capability that allows investigators to quickly find relevant and actionable information on subjects for their investigations. Not every investigation starts with the same amount of information. Fivecast Discovery can quickly enrich and showcase data with one piece of information, such as a name, address, or social media profile, that will ultimately expedite investigations.
Leverage Social Media to Combat Gang Activity
The use of social media by gangs highlights the dual nature of the platforms that many people know and love. While social media gives gang members a space to recruit, brag, and otherwise enhance their local presence and criminal activities, it also provides investigators a window into the day to day lives of suspects that would otherwise be extremely difficult to find. By understanding and exploiting these vulnerabilities through advanced tools like Fivecast ONYX, law enforcement agencies can take a huge step towards exploiting data that has previously gone overlooked, due to the impossible manpower and time requirements that manual collection and exploitation of social media data places on already overburdened law enforcement agencies.
