Terrorist
TerroristIsrael news photo: Flash 90

The United States last month said a new app monitors social media accounts. Now it has developed a game for the public to help track terrorists.

Called “Tag Challenge," the social media game will be played by people in Washington D.C., New York City, London, Stockholm, Sweden and Bratislava, Slovakia on March 31.  

“The infamous Panther Five has pulled an audacious new heist: they’ve stolen the world’s 3rd most expensive jewel, the Adly Diamond, from the Overholt Showroom in Washington, D.C.,” the Tag Challenge website announces. “Now they’ve split up and fled – dispersed to five different cities. We’re offering a reward to help find them.”

Profiles and mug shots of five suspects in each city will be posted on Tag Challenge, and players will have one day to locate the suspects in their city.

The suspects will be wearing a T-shirt with the Tag Challenge logo, and they are not real-life crime suspects.

A prize of $5,000 is being offered to the first player to upload photos of each of the five suspects to the Tag Challenge.

The U.S. Department of State and its embassy in Prague are sponsoring the contest to test ways social media and open source data can be used to track terrorists and locate missing children.

The State Department promises it is “not associated with any law enforcement agency, and the contest is not part of any law enforcement effort.”

The game was organized by graduate students from six countries who participated in social media and security conferences and will offer government officials insight to “whether and how social media can be used to accomplish a realistic, time-sensitive, international law enforcement goal,” the Tag Challenge website says.

"Results, strategies, and any data derived from the event will be made public after its conclusion,” it adds.