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“AK Shot gun we let our shots out, watch y’all run.”

While these words are some of the lyrics to infamous Chicago rapper Chief Keef’s song “All Time,” they also, more alarmingly, come from a tweet on Oct. 13, 2013, registered on 120th Street, mere blocks away from an area that is largely occupied by the Gangster Disciples — the rival gang of Chief Keef’s Black Disciples.

These two gangs are the same rivals that made headlines in 2012, when teen rapper Lil Jojo, a member of the Gangster Disciples, was rumored to have been killed by a member of the Black Disciples.

A tweet from Chief Keef’s account hours after the murder read, “Its Sad Cuz Dat N—- Jojo Wanted To Be Jus Like Us #LMAO.”

Although it’s unclear whether the Oct. 13 tweet predicted any dangerous or potentially violent activity between the two gangs, one thing is clear: Social media has become an outlet in which rival gang members spark or amplify conflicts.

“It serves as kind of a base or a means for gang members to taunt,” said Matt Jacob, research and operations manager of the Chicago Crime Commission. “Gang members are now able to ‘represent’ their gangs or their factions and street crews via taunting someone else, an opposing gang member, through Twitter or Facebook.”

Ben Austen, a contributor for Wired magazine, wrote an article in September 2013 called “Public Enemies: Social Media is Fueling Gang Wars in Chicago,” which examined the conflict between Chief Keef and Lil Jojo, and investigated the impact of social media on gang violence.

“Social media is not the cause of the violence, … but it’s a symptom of it, meaning that it reflects a violent environment in which people are living and shows the fragmentation of gangs,” Austen said in an interview.

No longer are gang territories kept within the realm of street corners and vacant lots; the endless boundaries of the Internet are now providing more than just a way for average users to connect with friends and family.

“Before, [gangs] would refer to graffiti and tagging in different buildings and territories to taunt,” Jacob said. “Although that still takes place, social media is obviously a much more convenient way to do it; you’re sitting at your computer and you can do and say what you want.”

Aside from its convenience, social media also serves as a “protective mechanism” for gang members, according to Austen.

“A lot of guys are not hardcore gangbangers,” he said. “They’re just trying to make it in the neighborhood, and that involves sometimes projecting an image of [themselves] as being tough so [they] don’t seem like the kind of person that’s an easy target.”

David Pyrooz co-authored a 2013 study called “Criminal and Routine Activities in Online Settings: Gangs, Offenders, and the Internet.” Like Austen, Pyrooz said gang members often use social media to inflate their reputation.

“Much of what gangs are oriented around is reputation management and the ability to establish and maintain a reputation, … and that’s what the internet is conducive to,” said Pyrooz, assistant professor in the College of Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State University. “We’ve called it an electronic graffiti sign.”

However, it is not only gang members who are using social media to their advantage. Jacob said the Chicago Police Department (CPD) is capitalizing on this trend by generating fake profiles on Facebook or Twitter and finding ways to follow leads on potential suspects in an investigation.

In conducting research for his Wired article, Austen said he spent time with CPD, as well as police departments in other cities.

He said the trend of gang members using social media to amplify conflicts actually helps police prevent some crimes before they happen because police are able to track the members’ posts.

“The head of the gang units in Chicago told me it’d be stupid if they weren’t [tracking social media],” Austen said. “You can see the affiliations; you can see who is who on the streets.”

CPD, however, could not be reached for comment.

While law enforcement remains fairly open about their use of social media to monitor posts, gang members often disregard police presence online, which Pyrooz calls the paradox of this trend.

“They know law enforcement is online, but it doesn’t deter many of them in posting their information,” he said. “They’ll post fights and advertise it to their friends but take it off within a few days, thinking law enforcement isn’t savvy enough to see it.”