Pentagon Wants a Social Media Propaganda Machine

Pentagon Wants a Social Media Propaganda Machine

www.wired.com

You don’t need to have 5,000 friends of Facebook to know that social media can have a notorious mix of rumor, gossip and just plain disinformation. The Pentagon is looking to build a tool to sniff out social media propaganda campaigns and spit some counter-spin right back at it.

On Thursday, Defense Department extreme technology arm Darpa unveiled its Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC) program. It’s an attempt to get better at both detecting and conducting propaganda campaigns on s

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I'm sure they are already doing thus, now it's just making it a much bigger project I believe.

But I don't think it should be the role of the Pentagon to engage in propaganda on the internet, instead they should have more interviews on News Stations to explain their actions, that would be way more beneficial for them and the country.

My two cents

www.wired.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

sounds like ......

ANON-II

reply to post by ModernAcademia


I'm all for it.

Assuming the SecDef will take real questions at press conferences, the DOD undergo outside audits with the results made public, that they disclose the relationships between the DOD and defense contractors, including senior staff floating between the DOD and those private firms and financial relationships including those related to trusts and foundations, defend program by program the relevance of all programs, publish detailed reports of how fraud and waste are being driven out of the DOD and who is being made accountable and how, explain why exactly we need troops on the ground to protect any country that is ranked in the top 20 of military strength, change the redaction policies to include only those items germane to national security rather than merely those which are uncomfortable or embarrasing.

They want to do that and I'm all for the marketing efforts. If they actually did the above, they would need it.

Otherwise, I agree with you

Obviously everyone has a point of view to pass onto others. Whether it's those that worship Putin, those who want you to believe in lizard people, or those who try to convince you anyone who supports capitalism is an extremist.

Now is the time to get an LLC and come up with a snappy name like "New Media operation LLC" or "Social Surveillance Services" and start subcontracting to the DoD as a social media operative. Apparently the taxpayer money is limitless at the Dod and semiblack ops places; might as well get our fair share of the swag.

I've always been amazed at when a controversial topic comes up on ATS, there is a bunch of new members signing up to steer the conversation "their way" ex. the BP spill brought in a lot of new people with an obvious agenda, never to be seen again after the hubbub died down. curious...

It's a brave new world...

reply to post by ModernAcademia


This idea has been bandied about by the military for over decade now. They have tried it with White PSYOP multiple times and it has failed. Mainly due to those in charge of the programs. The military is highly regimented, and with a fast changing internet medium, the two don't mix well.

All of the messages at the moment have to go through a approval chain, sometimes at the battalion level, but more often than not, they are submitted by the Information Operations officer at the Brigade or Division level.

Then you have the political/inter-office in fighting between the PSYOP Officer and the IO Officer which further slows things down.

By the time any message gets out, it is usually too late and irrelevant. And can you imagine paying a Soldier to Tweet or Facebook all day? It would be best to just leave it to the young bright minds at one of the OGAs.

But only one agency should be doing this, otherwise you’ll have conflicting messages all the time.

By the way, PSYOP is now called MISO, Military Information Support Operations.

reply to post by ModernAcademia


Oh come on now...who is kidding who?
The Pentagon already has one. You're on it.

We're in trouble.
Serious trouble.
And most people are so worried about interpersonal stuff like this person and that person, what THis person did to THAT person that they don't see the BIG picture of what a power structure can do to a people.

I'm scared. America doesn't exist anymore for me. It's gone already. I want her back, because I loved her, even with an occasional terrorist story on the evening news. I didn't like the bad but I miss it because the good went with it.

A story like this is horrifying to me. It's an overreaching power trying to guide the social belief structure of a people to accept more and more of the authority. I have several hundred followers on Facebook and Twitter, probably a thousand between blogs and social media - but only 3 might watch it, and maybe one other will worry about it.

That's terrifying too. Maybe it is me. That's what happens, you start to question yourself. It's our nature and they know it. You take a shower, put on deodorant and clean clothes that smell nice. You go into a room and everyone stands back and looks disgusted. You think, is it me? Do I stink? We NEVER stop to think that maybe they all ate something that gave them a bad smell in their noses. They don't even know it's in their own noses.

Reality is SO much about perception. Who's going to shape yours? I want to shape my own, and it's a happy one, and a simple one, a picture on a refrigerator of a happy family in a little house with loved pets and happy plants, and a pretty sun....but then there's this darkening in the sky that I can't control.

reply to post by ModernAcademia


It wouldn't seem like they need more control of information. Their masters already completely control all "MSM" or "official" sources of information.

So, maybe they see that a larger percentage of the population are seeking other news/info sources because the lack of truth is recognized on a large scale. That might be dangerous......

Originally posted by 1SawSomeThings
reply to post by ModernAcademia

 

It wouldn't seem like they need more control of information. Their masters already completely control all "MSM" or "official" sources of information.

So, maybe they see that a larger percentage of the population are seeking other news/info sources because the lack of truth is recognized on a large scale. That might be dangerous......

It's bigger than that - they want to control memes.
If our ideological makeup consists of material that is determined by meme snippets that we've integrated into our makeup, sorta like our bodies are composed of proteins that are determined by dna snippets that we've integrated into our genetic blueprint - then it's sorta like if they want to genetically re-engineer us.

But it's not our dna - they want to memetically re-engineer our MINDS.
It is thought control of the masses.

All media is currently social media, and all branches of government use it constantly to tweak attitudes, pass on disinformation, terrify us, threaten us, you name it. Broadcast, print, entertainment media are owned by tiny handful of conglomerates. Internet still has bloggers and forums like this one where people can discuss, try to express unpopular opinions but even here its difficult. it's laughable to suggest that the pentagon isn't involved in propaganda everywhere.

To do this successfully, they'd have to have a unit that was fast and fleet-footed.

You have to go through five layers of red-tape just to turn on a light switch. I think it will be just successful enough to let those who want to be fooled do so and make the rest of us even more suspicious.

Originally posted by hadriana




But it's not our dna - they want to memetically re-engineer our MINDS.
It is thought control of the masses.

Precisely...

And it's been going on for a long time, well researched, implemented and now reaping the harvest of minds that will willingly be controlled.

this link is a bit sensational but still thought provoking...
educate-yourself.org...

and

hiphopandpolitics.com...

social media is just a small part of the overall package

It is a great shame that the government has to use propaganda
(lying to the people. hide the truth.)
they think the people are to stupid and childish
to cope with the truth and the facts.
“Let Daddy look after things,
you go play with your toys.”
dont talk about problems in front of the kids.
didn't you hate that when you got older your parents still treat you like a child?

reply to post by ModernAcademia

The new Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC) program was submitted under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), an arm of the Department of Defense. The goal is to "develop a new science of social networks built on an emerging technology base" to help the agency keep abreast with communication technologies, namely Twitter.

The program's plan is fourfold:

1. Detect, classify, measure and track the (a) formation, development and spread of ideas and concepts (memes), and
(b) purposeful or deceptive messaging and misinformation.
2. Recognize persuasion campaign structures and influence operations across social mediasites and communities.
3. Identify participants and intent, and measure effects of persuasion campaigns.
4. Counter messaging of detected adversary influence operations.

It makes sense: Twitter's gotten a lot of shine as a tool for mass mobilization, none more famous than during the Arab Spring.
techland.time.com...

In that fourfold plan, # 1 and 2 are scary, but # 3 and 4 are downright unnerving.

Its worth paying attention to, can they and will they use this on U.S citizens.