Dataminr – AI for Social Media Big Data Mining
Summary
In addition, a couple years ago, The Intercept reported that Dataminr was one of a number of social mining companies, including a competitor called Geofeedia, that received undisclosed funding from In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital firm. The New York Post, which has a huge digital media presence, has used Dataminr for news tips on many major stories, such as the death of American student Otto Warmbier following his release from North Korea and the U.S. Congressional baseball practice shooting in Del Ray, Virginia last year. The system can reputedly “filter out fake announcements, jokesters, pranksters” and other non-events, so emergency personnel don’t waste their time chasing cats stuck in trees, according to TechCrunch. That same year Dataminr had a contract with the FBI for access to the company’s early-warning system, which included permitting the federal law enforcement agency to “search the complete Twitter firehose, in near real-time, using customizable filters” in the name of fighting terrorism. In 2017, in a short series of investigative pieces between The Verge and MapLight, more details emerged about how Dataminr allegedly offered its services to foreign governments in ways that the more cynical of us might construe as surveillance of political dissidents.
