The Biden administration appears poised to increase internet surveillance in response to the leaked Pentagon documents that appear to have been posted on the messaging platform Discord.
NBC News reported on Wednesday that the administration was looking at expanding how it monitors social media sites and chat rooms.
The report cited an unnamed senior administration official and a congressional official who said the administration wants to “expand the universe” of social media sites that US law enforcement and intelligence agencies monitor.
According to the congressional source, the report said the “intelligence community is now grappling with how it can scrub platforms like Discord in search of relevant material to avoid a similar leak in the future.”
According to The Washington Post, the top secret documents were posted on a private Discord server that a member later posted on public servers in March. The documents have been circulating on the internet since then and were discovered by The New York Times last week.
Expanding internet surveillance is just one way the Biden administration is considering responding to the Discord leak. Internally, the Pentagon has reportedly tightened control of classified material and is looking at other steps to take.
On Thursday, the FBI arrested a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman in Massachusetts who is suspected of being the leaker.
This article was originally featured at Antiwar.com and is republished with permission.
