Fighting Corruption With Social Media

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Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others are very popular for reporting your adventures sitting on your front porch or posting cute videos of animals or humans doing dumb stuff.

But social media is developing another valuable service — reporting corruption. Whether it’s corruption in the work place or in the darkest hallways of government, rank and file employees are sharing info and using social media to shine the light of truth on the unsavory activates of others.

Department of Justice Corruption Reporting Web Sites

The Department of Justice has an entire web site set up for people to report bad activity in both public and private sectors. There are not only links to sites in the US but also in Canada, Chile, Germany, France, Hong Kong, Korea, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. You’ll find the Department of Justice Anti-Corruption Web Site Here

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Here you will find not only corruption reporting web sites but also phone numbers to report any instances of corruption you might witness. They also alert you to scams and other web site fraud activities that are making the social media rounds.

They oversee things like, state and local corruption reports, border corruption, disaster fraud, foreign corruption, economic stimulus fraud and corruption, election crimes, and International contract corruption. You’ll find the FBI Corruption Reporting Web Site Here

International Local Corruption

So much of the unrest in the world can be traced to corruption at the highest level of foreign government leaders. Vladimir Putin seems to have particularly dirty hands when it comes to corruption. He made out very well by grossly overcharging for many construction projects during the last Winter Olympic Games.

The Mexican Federales

The Mexican Federal Police are well known for requesting or demanding bribes from those unlucky enough to be pulled over for minor offenses. I think most of us are familiar with the case of Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi jailed in Mexico for having legal firearms in his possession after taking a wrong turn near the border.

Some Final Thoughts

Will social media or the corruption reporting web sites bring an end to corruption? Probably not, there’s just way too much of it around the world. If unscrupulous people can extract profit from weaker victims they are going to do it.

Some folks in India have set up a rather interesting web site called, “I Paid A Bribe.” The site has over 26,699 reports of bribes either offered or suggested by police and others. There are bribes for simple things like getting a driver’s license, or getting your kid into high school even though he or she had passing grades.

In some cultures, taking payoffs or bribes are just the normal course of business. It’s been going on so long no one even questions it any longer.

If you are a victim or a witness to corruption please consider bookmarking some of the above sites and blowing the whistle. Corruption costs all of us.

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