US Homeland Security to alert the public through Facebook and Twitter

According to reports online, the US federal government is getting rid of the 5-color terror alerts and replacing them with 2 levels: elevated and imminent. In addition to simplifying the warnings given out, they will be resorting to communicating with the public through social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Though don’t expect to be alerted about every single threat as soon as it happens – if the results of warning the public will threaten to expose an intelligence operation or ongoing investigation, the public will still be kept in the dark. The main reason for this change has been due to criticisms for a system that was too vague and hard for the public to understand. While it is useful to know that threats will be easier to understand in the future (elevated – a credible threat without a time frame or target and imminent – a threat to the US that’s coming soon or ongoing), but do we need another media outlet to spread fear? After all we already have the internet, the TV, radio and newspaper. Expect the new system to be implemented by April 27.