The Pentagon is running an online covert influence operation on American citizens

FIVR

Diamond Member
Jun 1, 2016
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Next time you see somebody call somebody else a "Russian troll" after they rightfully criticize US imperialism, you might want to ask them whether they're a Department of Defense troll. They just might be....

Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media
Military's 'sock puppet' software creates fake online identities to spread pro-American propaganda

The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.

A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, to develop what is described as an "online persona management service" that will allow one US serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities based all over the world.

The project has been likened by web experts to China's attempts to control and restrict free speech on the internet. Critics are likely to complain that it will allow the US military to create a false consensus in online conversations, crowd out unwelcome opinions and smother commentaries or reports that do not correspond with its own objectives.

The discovery that the US military is developing false online personalities – known to users of social media as "sock puppets" – could also encourage other governments, private companies and non-government organisations to do the same.

The Centcom contract stipulates that each fake online persona must have a convincing background, history and supporting details, and that up to 50 US-based controllers should be able to operate false identities from their workstations "without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries".

Centcom spokesman Commander Bill Speaks said: "The technology supports classified blogging activities on foreign-language websites to enable Centcom to counter violent extremist and enemy propaganda outside the US."

He said none of the interventions would be in English, as it would be unlawful to "address US audiences" with such technology, and any English-language use of social media by Centcom was always clearly attributed. The languages in which the interventions are conducted include Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto.

Centcom said it was not targeting any US-based web sites, in English or any other language, and specifically said it was not targeting Facebook or Twitter.

Once developed, the software could allow US service personnel, working around the clock in one location, to respond to emerging online conversations with any number of co-ordinated messages, blogposts, chatroom posts and other interventions. Details of the contract suggest this location would be MacDill air force base near Tampa, Florida, home of US Special Operations Command.

Centcom's contract requires for each controller the provision of one "virtual private server" located in the United States and others appearing to be outside the US to give the impression the fake personas are real people located in different parts of the world.

It also calls for "traffic mixing", blending the persona controllers' internet usage with the usage of people outside Centcom in a manner that must offer "excellent cover and powerful deniability".

The multiple persona contract is thought to have been awarded as part of a programme called Operation Earnest Voice (OEV), which was first developed in Iraq as a psychological warfare weapon against the online presence of al-Qaida supporters and others ranged against coalition forces. Since then, OEV is reported to have expanded into a $200m programme and is thought to have been used against jihadists across Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East.

OEV is seen by senior US commanders as a vital counter-terrorism and counter-radicalisation programme. In evidence to the US Senate's armed services committee last year, General David Petraeus, then commander of Centcom, described the operation as an effort to "counter extremist ideology and propaganda and to ensure that credible voices in the region are heard". He said the US military's objective was to be "first with the truth".

This month Petraeus's successor, General James Mattis, told the same committee that OEV "supports all activities associated with degrading the enemy narrative, including web engagement and web-based product distribution capabilities".

Centcom confirmed that the $2.76m contract was awarded to Ntrepid, a newly formed corporation registered in Los Angeles. It would not disclose whether the multiple persona project is already in operation or discuss any related contracts.

Nobody was available for comment at Ntrepid.

In his evidence to the Senate committee, Gen Mattis said: "OEV seeks to disrupt recruitment and training of suicide bombers; deny safe havens for our adversaries; and counter extremist ideology and propaganda." He added that Centcom was working with "our coalition partners" to develop new techniques and tactics the US could use "to counter the adversary in the cyber domain".

According to a report by the inspector general of the US defence department in Iraq, OEV was managed by the multinational forces rather than Centcom.

Asked whether any UK military personnel had been involved in OEV, Britain's Ministry of Defence said it could find "no evidence". The MoD refused to say whether it had been involved in the development of persona management programmes, saying: "We don't comment on cyber capability."

OEV was discussed last year at a gathering of electronic warfare specialists in Washington DC, where a senior Centcom officer told delegates that its purpose was to "communicate critical messages and to counter the propaganda of our adversaries".

Persona management by the US military would face legal challenges if it were turned against citizens of the US, where a number of people engaged in sock puppetry have faced prosecution.

Last year a New York lawyer who impersonated a scholar was sentenced to jail after being convicted of "criminal impersonation" and identity theft.

It is unclear whether a persona management programme would contravene UK law. Legal experts say it could fall foul of the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981, which states that "a person is guilty of forgery if he makes a false instrument, with the intention that he or another shall use it to induce somebody to accept it as genuine, and by reason of so accepting it to do or not to do some act to his own or any other person's prejudice". However, this would apply only if a website or social network could be shown to have suffered "prejudice" as a result.




https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
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^ Russian troll.

Now where are my Daddy Warbucks bucks? Can I exchange them for Soros dollars?
 
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FIVR

Diamond Member
Jun 1, 2016
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Wouldn't it make perfect sense that the DoD would want to at least match the capabilities of the Russian SVR?


I can't see a universe where this kind of program isn't active. How many times does the pentagon tell congress "we have an **** gap with Russia"? Now they have a covert social media influence gap. So they are going to fill it and try to even outgun the Russians with online propaganda.
 

FIVR

Diamond Member
Jun 1, 2016
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I don't even blame the Pentagon. Of course they have to match the capabilities of their adversary.

The question is how much is all this propaganda going to scramble the minds of average joe Facebook-using americans? They're already gaslighted so hard by Israel, Russia, and now their own government is going to gaslight them some more.

We're so fvcked.
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
71,073
30,451
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Russian slipped Israel in. :D You still pissed your countrymen got shot down by your ally using the weapons you sent them?
 

FIVR

Diamond Member
Jun 1, 2016
3,753
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Oh come on. The Israeli political action committee has a stranglehold on US politics. They almost tanked the Iran deal while Obama was president, and they did get Trump to reverse it.


Acting like Israel isn't one of the most malign forces in US politics isn't going to get any more people to believe your "Russian Troll" schpiel
 

SimplyComplex

Member
Jul 4, 2009
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The question is how much is all this propaganda going to scramble the minds of average joe Facebook-using americans? They're already gaslighted so hard by Israel, Russia, and now their own government is going to gaslight them some more.
If only people could evaluate information and think for themselves, instead of just following along with whatever bullshit huckster can get to them first.
 
Feb 4, 2009
35,593
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OP is a known Russian poster, not in the sense like he’s a useful idiot. OP is a real Russian.
Good to know the average Joe is Russia is super concerned about the pentagons attempts to influence social media.
 

woolfe9998

Lifer
Apr 8, 2013
16,221
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Inb4 DoD troll calls me a "Russian Troll"


lol

Your own article, your sole source of evidence for this, says that they do not do this on English language sites. And you're aggrieved about being called a Russian troll on this English language site. Unlike others here, I tend to doubt you're a Russian troll. However, I do not doubt the extreme limitations of your intellect.
 

allisolm

Elite Member
Administrator
Jan 2, 2001
25,135
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The Pentagon is running an online covert influence operation on American citizens

The question is how much is all this propaganda going to scramble the minds of average joe Facebook-using americans? They're already gaslighted so hard by Israel, Russia, and now their own government is going to gaslight them some more.

I read the article (I know. I'm not at all sure why.) Nowhere in it did I see that the Pentagon is running an online covert operation on American citizens. What I read is that they are "developing software " that, when developed and if put into place, will NOT target American websites, be written in English, or be used on Facebook or Twitter. So, I guess the only Americans affected will be those reading sites outside of the US and written in Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto.

Somehow I'm pretty sure that, should the whole thing be real and actually come into being, it won't affect the mind of the average Joe Facebook user one bit. Nor will it be influencing the American citizenry.

Whew! Thank goodness! Yet another major crisis averted.
 

compuwiz1

Admin Emeritus Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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The Pentagon is running an online covert influence operation on American citizens



I read the article (I know. I'm not at all sure why.) Nowhere in it did I see that the Pentagon is running an online covert operation on American citizens. What I read is that they are "developing software " that, when developed and if put into place, will NOT target American websites, be written in English, or be used on Facebook or Twitter. So, I guess the only Americans affected will be those reading sites outside of the US and written in Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto.

Somehow I'm pretty sure that, should the whole thing be real and actually come into being, it won't affect the mind of the average Joe Facebook user one bit. Nor will it be influencing the American citizenry.

Whew! Thank goodness! Yet another major crisis averted.

OP-OWNED!!! :D
 

Ichinisan

Lifer
Oct 9, 2002
28,298
1,235
136
It has been obvious to me for a long time now that OP has worsening mental issues. He's definitely prone to believing and spreading any sensational conspiracy theory he comes across. Even some not-so-sensational "theories" that are reeeeeally reaching.
 

FIVR

Diamond Member
Jun 1, 2016
3,753
911
106
You guys have no chill.


Call we all at least agree that BOTH Russia AND the US Government are great threats to all Americans right now?

Yes?

Good. This thread is adjourned.
 

Jhhnn

IN MEMORIAM
Nov 11, 1999
62,365
14,681
136
You guys have no chill.


Call we all at least agree that BOTH Russia AND the US Government are great threats to all Americans right now?

Yes?

Good. This thread is adjourned.

Had you said Russia & the GOP, I'd have agreed with you. I mean, they all had the same message in 2016, didn't they?