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Friday, March 18, 2011

Media Is This Why My Facebook Page Keeps Playing the National Anthem?

Posted by Adam Borowitz on Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 2:49 PM

The U.S. military has plans to use social-networking sites to spread pro-American propaganda, according to a British newspaper.

The really freaky part is that the plans call for operatives to pose as normal people while spreading the message:

The project has been likened by web experts to China's attempts to control and restrict free speech on the internet. Critics are likely to complain that it will allow the US military to create a false consensus in online conversations, crowd out unwelcome opinions and smother commentaries or reports that do not correspond with its own objectives.

The discovery that the US military is developing false online personalities — known to users of social media as "sock puppets" — could also encourage other governments, private companies and non-government organisations to do the same.

The Centcom contract stipulates that each fake online persona must have a convincing background, history and supporting details, and that up to 50 US-based controllers should be able to operate false identities from their workstations "without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries".

Read the rest here.

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