The Central Industrial Security Force plans to monitor social media trends to improve security at establishments such as airports and nuclear bases, PTI reported on Sunday.

For this, the paramilitary force has built a media lab and a control room at its base in Arakkonam near Chennai to monitor social media platforms. The Intelligence Bureau and the Mumbai Police already use the control room, which is known as the Pattern Research for Institutional Social Media, or Prism.

A special team has been trained to track social media trends and news across platforms, according to the report. The CISF will use these trends as vital pieces of “actionable intelligence”. It will use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and flickr to keep an eye on suspicious activities against airports and nuclear or aerospace stations.

“The digital chatter in the world of social media is a great source of intelligence for timely action,” PTI quoted a senior CISF officer as saying. “Public sentiment towards the force, behavioural pattern and predictable actions can be a great help to take timely action and avoid any mishap.”

CISF Director General OP Singh said the force would try this out “on an experimental basis”. “Based on the experiences, this smart centre will be further bolstered,” he said.