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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."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @01:59PM
How do you propose to stop sockpuppets then? You don't. You're defending their use by not allowing us to see who issues downmods of opponents and upmods their true accounts as the sockpuppet master. No, you're full of bull buddy.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @02:18PM
janrinok doesn't want the ability to spot a down modder or an up modder (good idea too). It'd give away his game he uses himself by revealing patterns of abuse by sockpuppeteers. Apk alluded to it in his post (moderators are the biggest abusers of it or forums owners too) http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=2836&cid=67545 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @04:47PM
The TRUNCHEON BEING USED IN LIEU OF CONVERSATION (which mod or sockpuppet issued it to hide it? Oh, that's right - we can't see that, they won't allow it, since they abuse it themselves).
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday July 11 2014, @02:21PM
1. I don't support sockpuppets.
2. We have a staff who can, if necessary, control them.
3. Our policy is not to censor, but to allow all the freedom of speech that everyone expects.
Enjoy your time on the site.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @02:44PM
No, no - HOW do you propose to actually CONTROL sockpuppets? Good luck with that (minus patterns of upmod/downmod recognition by allowing others to see such patterns by allowing us to see who issues them). I can make sock puppets galore too, using different emails and isp accounts (or those that allow ip addy changes or quick lease/release cycles) - so again, how are YOU going to control that? You CAN'T. So don't b.s. us here and defend sock puppets giving away that you use them yourself obviously since you resist allowing others to see who up modded themselves (the patterns would show here and force sock puppeteers to maintain many sock puppets putting pressure and work on them to do so), or down mod their opponents with (again a pattern would reveal itself). You are so easy to see through by resisting adding that easy to do feature, it is not funny, sock puppeteer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @04:20PM
They can't, you know it, I know it (everyone does): It's exposed Laminator X and his sock puppet janrinok, so badly, Laminator X is reduced to illogical ad hominem attacks off topic here http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=2836&cid=67656 [soylentnews.org] and he resists answering HOW he could control sock puppets too, because it is his "little tin god sockpuppet dictator 'support network' illusion his sock puppets provide him" so he can continue up modding himself and his alterego sock puppets as well as downmod his opponents he cannot logically defeat validly (see link above, says it all, and shows how much of a "projectionist" your host little TIN GOD here, really is, revealing himself as online sock puppet using trash, by resisting the 1 thing that exposes sock puppetry in patterns of abuse anyone would notice).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @02:56PM
"When the DOWNMOD truncheon is used in lieu of conversation..." Alan Moore & V as APK stated. Allowing minus modding alone is that truncheon. Don't even try to snow us man. That's elementary in and of itself. Your weak "arguments" are academic against it. You are defending what you use yourself: Sock Puppets.