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DARPA Dissects Twitter, Facebook, Reddit to Extract Propaganda HOWTOs

posted by n1 on Friday July 11 2014, @11:05AM   
from the it's-all-an-experiment dept.

APK writes with an article via nakedsecurity.sophos.com:

On Tuesday, The Guardian posted an article about the US military pouring millions into researching how to become a Twitter-user-influencing, propaganda-spewing machine.

The program in question is known as Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC).

SMISC, which was announced in 2011, has been regarded as the means by which the US military can both detect and conduct propaganda campaigns via social media.

While DARPA's social media experiments well might have avoided breaking any law by using only publicly available data, some of its studies are sure to make people uncomfortable.

For example, some of the SMISC research has focused on the Occupy Wall Street protests and those in the Middle East, while other projects have analysed online memes and tweets from celebrities including Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga (described as "the most popular elite user on Twitter", according to The Guardian.

The manager of SMISC, Dr. Rand Waltzman, said in a post that understanding social media is just part of DARPA's "mission of preventing strategic surprise."

• Re:Earth shattering to those abusing it Re:Earth shattering to those abusing it (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 12 2014, @12:31AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 12 2014, @12:31AM (#67913)

  Like your "moderation" staff assholes here: Check this out - They resist what you yourself don't mind, in being able to tell who issued up or down mods. Why? It would give away the "moderation staff's" own modus operandi using sock puppets (which apk's post alluded to) themselves by letting others be able to see their detractors/naysayers, fairly, like courts of law even do.

  The SN comments section isn't always like a court of law with rules of evidence, etc. Sometimes it can be more like an angry mob of cannibals. Right now, APK, you are looking mighty crispy and crunchy to this hungry mob.

  It would upset the little tin god Laminator X's apple cart full of utter sockpuppeteering bullshit on his part.

  APK, just stop for a moment. Take a deep breath. Take another one. Feel better now?

  OK, you have made this accusation multiple times that everyone who disagrees with you is a sockpuppet of LaminatorX. It should be pretty obvious to any reasonable person that this is not true. Repeating it constantly does not, somehow, make it more true. In fact, repeating it constantly just shows you to be a strident, hyper-emotional, unhinged, neurotic git.

  Tell us if it was off topic or not!

  OK. It's off topic. There. I said it. Happy? The topic is supposed to be about DARPA's funding of research into using social media for propaganda purposes. Whether or not you should be allowed to get a window into who is downmodding you is neither here nor there with respect to the topic at hand.

  ...yet rated off topic with examples of female illogic all thru his replies.

  Frankly, adding a touch of misogyny makes you look like the hysterical one in this conversation. Just sayin'.

  Parent

• Right now you look like Laminator X (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 12 2014, @05:09PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 12 2014, @05:09PM (#68162)

  Trolling by ac trying to defend himself, failing badly. How can apk's post be off topic http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=2813&cid=66810 [soylentnews.org] when it directly notes the topic at its outset on a theory of collisions of male vs female thinking HERE dumbass with supporting evidences thereof? He wrote the mods as instructed to get it changed and your bullshit falls apart again on that post alone. You fail again, Laminator X (and you know it).

  Parent