FBI wants Facebook user data to head off shootings

The FBI wants tons of user data from social media sites, including Facebook, according to the Wall Street Journal.

After the tragic mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, as well as Dayton, Ohio, President Donald Trump came forward saying he wanted the Department of Justice and social media platforms to be more proactive about anticipating these sorts of attacks.

Now, the FBI is soliciting proposals from outside vendors for a contract to pull massive amounts of public data from Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites to identify and react before shootings happen.

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What they're looking to gather is reportedly publicly available data, but Twitter said company policy prohibits the use of data for surveillance purposes, so there's an anticipated pushback against the federal request.