Buzzfeed News claimed to have obtained quotes from a European Intelligence source predicting that Trump’s incessant use of Twitter to rant about everything from politics to celebrities would cause American Intelligence-sharing allies to begin filtering the information given to the Trump-party.

1. #SHOPTALK:Intelligence
Sharing,President-Elect
Trump,&Twitter
A. A.
Intro to Social Media
Thursday 7pm

2. TheBackground:
● President-elect Donald Trump has a history of using social media site
Twitter to post his responses to criticisms and current events.
● There is speculation and conflicting reports between the DNC and the RNC
over whether or not Russia was somehow involved in ‘hacking’ the US
election to favor Trump. Reports from the CIA claim Russia’s involvement
in Trump’s favor.
● On January 9th, Buzzfeed News obtained a quote from a military official in
Europe who wished that their identity and nationality remain anonymous. In
the interview, the official stated that they believed their country’s
officials may be less likely to share sensitive intelligence with the
Trump party for fear he would tweet about it.

3. Note-Worthy
● This reflects the viewpoint of
one individual and their
interpretation of what Trump’s
tweeting could mean for
intelligence-sharing.
● An official in Egypt said that
one tweet could not undo the
40-year intelligence-sharing
relationship between the US and
Egypt.

4. “Weareinuncharteredwaters,butyes,it
couldbeaproblem.”-anonymousUS
OfficialonTrump’spersonalityand
disregardforU.S.Intelligence
“Thelargerconcernisstrategicintelligence:
Willhebetweetingaboutthingsinvolving
agreementsoralliesthatmightchangethebig
picture?Aperfectexampleisthesituation
currentlyinvolvingtheRussians,Turksandthe
ISIScoalition.Behavingerraticallyinpublic
canleavealotofroomformisunderstanding
onthestrategiclevel.”
-ISIS-FocusedIntelligenceOfficer
“Itseemsthatifthe
administration’spositionisknee
jerkskepticism,thatcould
potentiallymakeUSallieslesslikely
toshareRussiarelatedinformation
withtheUS.”
DaveedGartenstein-Ross,
SeniorFellow,Defensefor
Democracies

5. WhyDoesItMatter?
● The concern over Trump’s twitter
interfering with the sharing of foreign
intelligence is largely circumstantial,
but it raises several interesting
questions:
In the age of social media, when any
passing thought can be immortalized on
the internet, what effect does that
have on our future leaders? How do we
determine what is appropriate?
Never before has tweeting even been
brought up as a potential privacy
violation at a level as high as POTUS,
will this bring actual concern and will
it bring about new legislation?

6. UPDATE:1.10.2017
TRUMP TWEETS ARTICLE:
As of 5pm on January 10, Donald
Trump has responded to the article
published by Buzzfeed news in a
semi-ironic manner.. By tweeting
about it. The article he links,
written by LifeZette, questions
Buzzfeed’s journalistic integrity
and reminds audiences that Buzzfeed
themselves have said that the
claims in the article are not
verifiable.

7. Mentioned
● Prothero, Mitch, and Nancy A. Youssef. "Trump’s Tweets Are Freaking Out
America’s Closest Allies." Buzzfeed News. Buzzfeed, 9 Jan. 2017. Web. 9
Jan. 2017.
● Kirby, Brendan. "Fake News: BuzzFeed Runs ‘Unverifiable’ Trump-Russia
Claims." LifeZette. N.p., 10 Jan. 2017. Web. 10 Jan. 2017
● Donald Trump’s Twitter