A potential disadvantage of social media is that it can endanger a mission or soldiers. In the past, it has happened that a location where the Dutch defense was located became known through messages on social media. Soldiers can unknowingly share valuable information with the world. For example, the Israeli army had to cancel an operation because a soldier had announced the attack on Facebook .
Social media – crowdsourcing
Social media also offer new opportunities for collaboration, especially for collaboration with people and organizations outside of one's own organization, such as citizens, NGOs, GOs and local groups. The uprisings in Egypt and Syria are the most obvious examples of collaboration that has been initiated with the help of social media. But social media offer more opportunities. For laos telegram data example, they can also help find people. After the earthquake in New Zealand (February 2011), Google's person finder was used to find out from residents whether they were still alive and whether there were any missing people from their immediate surroundings. However, communication via social media is prone to miscommunication. The short, often quickly sent messages offer many opportunities for misinterpretation. This is a challenge when collaborating.
On patrol with a smartphone – Worst-case scenario, or maximizing opportunities?
In this article we discussed some of the pros and cons of social media for defense. For a complete overview of all the pros and cons identified so far, download the overview map (PDF) , which was created based on a literature study and a workshop with 19 stakeholders and experts, or view the prezi .
At this stage, we are very curious about your opinion on the use of social media by the military. Are we missing any important advantages or disadvantages? And do you think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages? We would love to hear from you!