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DARPA Dissects Twitter, Facebook, Reddit to Extract Propaganda HOWTOs

posted by n1 on Friday July 11 2014, @11:05AM   Printer-friendly
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."

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @04:41PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @04:41PM (#67680)

    This reminds me of the HBGary scandals, & sockpuppeteer masters that infest forums: A real "do not as I do, but do as I say" type lunacy.

    I'm fairly certain that most objective readers will be able to easily discern which direction the "lunacy" is coming from in this discussion.

    (Makes me sad, disgusted, & just disappointed in general...)

    If you are so "sad, disgusted, & just disappointed" then why are you still reading and posting to SN? Wouldn't you rather go somewhere else more to your liking? How about you start your own blog where you can moderate the site precisely the way you want to?

    I will TELL you why I suspect it is so...

    Your paranoid suspicions mean little to me.

    (which is why many of us are here in the 1st place, to build a better 'slashdot', or @ least I am)

    Somehow, I don't feel that your "contributions" are making this site all that much better. Just my opinion, of course.

    /.'ers will come here, mark my words, by the droves because of it

    Some of us don't actually see that as an improvement. Again, this is just my opinion.

    Just to be able to FAIRLY confront a bogus troll downmodder for such unjustifiable downmods...

    I, for one, would hate to see the moderation system turn into "duel of the downmodders". Again, this is just my opinion. In fact, I'm beginning to think the best way to handle this would be that everyone posts as AC. This just might cut down on the clash of personalities that too often occurs on /. and SN. Of course, YMMV.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @04:49PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @04:49PM (#67692)

    You convince us of apk's truthful statements all the more.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @05:04PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @05:04PM (#67698)

    Registered users say they don't mind seeing who does upmods or downmods http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=2836&cid=67599 [soylentnews.org] mr. ac troll complete with snide remarks and illogical ad hominem attacks, so why do you? Logged out and trolling by ac now are we, Mr. Laminator X? Yes, obviously.