US Government Proposes Using Social Media To Catch Disability Fraud

Social media is where we post and share a lot of things, such as status updates, photos, check-ins, and more. Sometimes we end up sharing things that give away more information about us than we would like, and the US government is apparently hoping to capitalize on that by using social media to catch people committing disability fraud.

This is according to a report from the New York Times (via Engadget) where the White House is working with the Social Security Administration to introduce a new rule that would allow social media monitoring. This in turn would help crack down on instances of disability fraud, where people might accidentally post photos or share information that prove that they are claiming disability even if they don’t need it.

While we suppose it makes sense that someone who is defrauding the government might share photos of themselves on social media that could give it away, some argue that it is not the most accurate way of going about catching defrauders. Speaking to Engadget, EFF senior staff attorney Adam Schwartz warned how photos uploaded to social media might not represent the present or the state of the person’s current health.

“People post old pictures of themselves on social media. So when a disabled person posts a picture of themselves doing something a disabled person should not be doing, it is not necessarily evidence of fraud about government disability benefits.” The chairwoman of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities Lisa D. Ekman echoed that sentiment by telling the Times, “Just because someone posted a photograph of them golfing or going fishing in February of 2019 does not mean that the activity occurred in 2019.”

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