The BBC is reporting that the British army is setting up the "77th Brigade" to fight the "social media war"
The Army is setting up a new unit that will use psychological operations and social media to help fight wars "in the information age".
The title of the unit is a reference to the original 77th Indian Infantry Brigade:
The Army spokesman said it would share the "spirit of innovation" of the Chindits in the Burma Campaign of 1942 to 1945.
Chindits was the name given to the Long Range Penetration (LRP) groups that operated in the Burmese jungle behind enemy lines, targeting Japanese communications.
The same story is also covered at The Guardian, ITV News and The Telegraph. The Psy Ops element is likely to be from the 15 Psy Ops Gp which has been operational for many years. There is concern regarding the manpower required to establish the Brigade: the British Army is already facing manpower cuts and the diversion of soldiers from existing combat units to a specialist unit would not be welcomed by many serving and former commanders.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 01 2015, @09:45PM
Beat that 77!
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 01 2015, @09:57PM
I predict that the next Brigade will be set up specifically to fight off islam. By then it will probably be too late.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Sunday February 01 2015, @10:27PM
Because by then, your sister will be bowing to 1 god, instead of 3.
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @10:56AM
Your penis does not count as a god.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 01 2015, @10:34PM
Can the Mao-Mao be far behind? False flag terrorist actions on line, like, hey, breaking into Sony's network? Hmmm.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by frojack on Sunday February 01 2015, @10:45PM
The more you read about it the odder the British Army seems to be.
Seems like it was a long collection of odd ball regiments patched together from various parts of the Empire, with different uniforms, names, skills. Right up to world War II you had to carefully match regiments against the mission because of vast differences in training.
Today it seems some of these names are historical appendages with no current meaning, and still sappers, fusiliers, grenadiers, gurkhas, rifles guards, Black Watch, Highlanders, etc, persist, perhaps in name only.
Even the Wiki article [wikipedia.org] adds more confusion than light.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by emg on Monday February 02 2015, @02:40AM
That's the problem when you run most of the world for a couple of centuries, then... don't. You can't just sack the big brass, so you end up with more generals than soldiers, and more regiments than companies.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @04:11AM
The 77th Googleiers?
(Score: 2) by Bot on Monday February 02 2015, @08:49AM
if the British army, or whatever other army for that matter, is easy to figure out, then they have a problem.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 1) by aliks on Monday February 02 2015, @12:41AM
and the money for new toys comes from promising to counter "cyber" threats.
Add a bit of window dressing to make it look like there is a traditional British Army backup and there ya go - millions to spend.
Rest assured the money will be spent on traditional squaddie activities like yomping around on wet hillsides, with little of nothing spent on technology.
To err is human, to comment divine
(Score: 5, Interesting) by c0lo on Monday February 02 2015, @02:05AM
Doesn't this amount to "waging war using a civilian facilities"?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Interesting) by pnkwarhall on Monday February 02 2015, @03:24AM
The terms-of-use of the website/service may prohibit the behavior, but what's the consequence for using these "civilian facilities"? Perma-ban? Some TOS speak of legal action for breaking the rules, but for many, account-banning is the most severe punishment. Anyway, what's the worst thing that can happen to the government authorizing these tactics -- particularly one foreign to the service's native country?
Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
(Score: 2) by pnkwarhall on Monday February 02 2015, @03:27AM
(continued from previous comment, mistakenly posted)
Will the government be charged with war crimes for (mis-)using **Twitter**? I don't want to downplay the influence of social media channels, but I think that would be a tough one to follow-up on in a war crime-type situation.
Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday February 02 2015, @04:34AM
How about extradition, imprisonment and fines... as for hackers [wikipedia.org], isn't it? (grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday February 02 2015, @12:20PM
Have their media campaign analyzed and countered by the "attacked" country? Starting from sock-puppet users banned, passing through a counter media campaign and ending with profiling the "followers" to quash the buildup of a current of opinion Hoover/McCarthy style (having access to the data stored by an entity they can control is a huge tactical advantage in a PR/propaganda "war".)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by pnkwarhall on Monday February 02 2015, @08:29PM
Basically you just described a social media "counter attack", which would be expected in any sort of battle/war-situation. That's not the type of consequence I was responding about, in the context of your "civilian facilities" comment. Using 'civilian facilties' to conduct war activity is prohibited under the laws of war -- with the consequences being
a) the civilian facility then becomes a "legal" target
b) casualties w/r/t this usage may become part of war crimes trials
Neither one of these consequences seems like a major deterrent to governments using social media "warfare" tactics. (C'mon -- basically we're talking propaganda dissemination here.)
Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
(Score: 2) by mojo chan on Monday February 02 2015, @01:03PM
Yes. It's worse than that though. GCHQ hacks private computers and uses them to frame others for its criminality. As a private citizen you are basically at war with your government, trying to protect yourself from being caught up in their criminal enterprises and cyber war efforts. They consider you collateral damage.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 4, Funny) by moylan on Monday February 02 2015, @07:09AM
opportunity missed. they could have called it the 404 regiment. :-)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @10:02PM
Imagine a counterintelligence officer from another country trying to dig up information.
404 Regiment Not Found
(Score: 2) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Monday February 02 2015, @05:04PM
I'll take my 101st Legion against your 77th Brigade any day.
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)