Taxpayer's Money Hard at Work

I'm naive. I didn't think the US government would sink this low. But they have. They are spending taxpayer money to build fake Facebook and other social media accounts where they can " manipulate online conversations and spreading pro-American, pro-military propaganda".

From a UK Guardian newspaper article:

The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.

A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, to develop what is described as an "online persona management service" that will allow one US serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities based all over the world.

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".

There is more. Go read the original article.

And how much taxpayer money is involved? Only a dribble at this time:

Centcom confirmed that the $2.76m contract was awarded to Ntrepid, a newly formed corporation registered in Los Angeles.

But that is money that could be spent educating an inner city kid to get a solid middle class job and lift himself and his whole extended family out of poverty. Instead, the Obama administration would rather spend the money on propaganda, the intentional injection of lies into social media. And what is the consequence of that? Kids will get cynical about social media. They won't know whether they have a relationship with a real person or a propaganda machine. Talk about dissolving the social fabric!

Why doesn't the military simply put everybody into isolation cells and reduce everybody to bread and water. Why bother pretending that you live in a free society where you can freely interact with others if your government is busy manipulating you, filling your mind with lies. Bizarre.

Of course the US government will put its hand on its heart and "promise" that this kind of weapon won't be turned onto its own population. Not least because of the legal implications:

Persona management by the US military would face legal challenges if it were turned against citizens of the US, where a number of people engaged in sock puppetry have faced prosecution.

Last year a New York lawyer who impersonated a scholar was sentenced to jail after being convicted of "criminal impersonation" and identity theft.

But do you really believe that the Dr. Strangelove's in the military will resist the temptation to protect the nation's "precious bodily fluids" when it has such an effective tool at his disposal?

Even if American citizens are stupid enough to believe the "cross my heart and hope to die" promises of the Obama administration, will other countries sit back and let their citizens be manipulated by propaganda from the US? At the very least, these countries will retaliate and begin building their own weapons of mass propaganda. We could have escalating weapons system reminiscent of the "good old days" of the Cold War when the military was "truly respected" as guardians of the nation (the infamous SAC slogan was "Peace is Our Profession" when in fact their job was to carry nuclear weapons around to ensure the utter destruction of all life on earth).

I can envision the resurgence of the MAD doctrine. But this time as the MAP (Mutually Assured Propaganda) doctrine, i.e. I get to convince your citizens that you leader is psychotic and trying to kill them all and you get the right do convince my citizens that our leader is psychotic and trying to kill our citizens!

As an interesting side note... On the one hand the US government is spending money to propagandize people. On the other hand, it has just voted to kill all funding for NPR (National Public Radio). I guess the powers-that-be have decided that NPR was not an effective propaganda tool. Going to social media and creating fake personalities would be cheaper and more effective.