Essay Sample on Social Media & Crime: How Criminals Use It & What Can Be Done

Introduction

Social media has grown to be the most important technological phenomenon in the modern world. It is a place where people have grown to rely on to keep in touch with friends and family (Quan-Haase, Mo & Wellman, 2017). However, it has been used in organized crimes to promote their criminal activities. This paper discusses how hackers and cyber-criminal organizations have used social media to propagate crimes, measures the government can take to counter crimes committed through social media.

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Criminal organizations have used social media to advance their criminal activities in various ways. For instance, organizations such as the Mafia have used it to increase their influence in the globe (Soros, 2018). By uploading their acts on the internet, they demonstrate their power to the mass showing their influence. They have also used social media to recruit members. By following those users who take an interest in their activities, they can identify potential additional members and thereafter making contact. Also, hackers have used social media to spread viruses and malware that can be used to spy on people and breach access to private data of their victims (Patel et al, 2017).

Due to the threat posed by cybercriminals and organizations that exploit social media and for the government security agents and departments to counter these potential threats effectively, the government needs to monitor social media activity and counter some of their activity on the internet (Gates & Podder, 2017). Means to trace back any communication to its source should be established. Social media platforms should also make sure that any communication showing criminal activities or any content promoting crime is taken down. Such content would include extremism, hate speech or those triggering problems in mental health. The government should also set the standard of software used in government agencies to prevent a breach of intel from hackers or viruses on the internet.

Even as important as social media is to our lives, it still exposes us to cyber-attacks and bullying and makes our privacy vulnerable to breach. This has sometimes led to devastating consequences such as information loss and theft, ransoming and exploitation. We should always be careful when using the internet to avoid this.

References

Gates, S., & Podder, S. (2015). Social media, recruitment, allegiance and the Islamic State. Perspectives on Terrorism, 9(4). http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/446/html

Patel, P., Kannoorpatti, K., Shanmugam, B., Azam, S., & Yeo, K. C. (2017, January). A theoretical review of social media usage by cyber-criminals. In 2017 International Conference on Computer Communication and Informatics (ICCCI) (pp. 1-6). IEEE. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321259195_A_theoretical_review_of_social_media_usage_by_cyber-criminals

Quan-Haase, A., Mo, G. Y., & Wellman, B. (2017). Connected seniors: How older adults in East York exchange social support online and offline. Information, Communication & Society, 20(7), 967-983. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1305428

Soros, G. (2018). The social media threat to society and security. Project Syndicate. Retrieved from https://www. project-syndicate. org/commentary/social-media-security-threat-by-George-Soros-2018-02. (Accessed 18 July 2018). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1879366518300174