National Security

Shock study: Feds say social media can help with background checks

By Pete Kasperowicz

Published February 2, 2017 7:23pm ET

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Shock study: Feds say social media can help with background checks — A federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016, dismissed a lawsuit accusing Twitter of supporting the Islamic State group. The family of two men shot and killed in Jordan claimed that Twitter had contributed to their deaths by allowing the group to sign up for and use Twitter accounts. The judge agreed with Twitter that the company cannot be held liable because it wasn't the speaker of ISIS's hateful rhetoric. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) | Richard Drew

A federal official acknowledged Thursday that “a number” of government agencies conducted separate studies on whether examining social media accounts can yield useful information when background checks are conducted on people who apply to work at the federal government.

And according to the official, “most” agencies agree that social media can help officials learn more about the people they might hire.

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