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Pentagon Wants a Social Media Propaganda Machine

Pentagon Wants a Social Media Propaganda Machine
You don’t need to have 5,000 friends of Facebook to know that social media can have a notorious mix of rumor, gossip and just plain disinformation. The Pentagon is looking to build a tool to sniff out social media propaganda campaigns and spit some counter-spin right back at it. On Thursday, Defense Department extreme technology arm Darpa unveiled its Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC) program. It’s an attempt to get better at both detecting and conducting propaganda campaigns on social media. SMISC has two goals. This is more than just checking the trending topics on Twitter. Not all memes, of course. More specifically, SMISC needs to be able to seek out “persuasion campaign structures and influence operations” developing across the social sphere. Of course, SMISC won’t be content to just to hang back and monitor social media trends in strategic locations. What exactly SMISC will look like it its final form is hard to say. Photo: USAF See Also:

Google Admits Handing over European User Data to US Intelligence Agencies Google has admitted complying with requests from US intelligence agencies for data stored in its European data centers, most likely in violation of European Union data protection laws. Gordon Frazer, Microsoft UK's managing director, made news headlines some weeks ago when he admitted that Microsoft can be compelled to share data with the US government regardless of where it is hosted in the world. At the center of this problem is the USA PATRIOT ACT, which states that companies incorporated in the United States must hand over data administered by their foreign subsidiaries if requested. Not only that, but they can be forced to keep quiet about it in order to avoid exposing active investigations and alert those targeted by the probes. This situation poses a serious problem for companies like Microsoft, Google or Amazon, which offer cloud services around the world, because their subsidiaries must also respect local laws. This is not only a theoretical problem.

War Costs www.readwriteweb.com/archives/obama_meets_with_the_real_leaders_of_the_world_pho.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+readwriteweb+%28ReadWriteWeb%29 What does the President of the United States say to the unelected leader of a teaming populace fast approaching the equivalent population, but half his age? Thanks for following me on Facebook? Watch out for Zynga, I don't trust them? Barack Obama met yesterday with CEOs from Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Google, Yahoo and other leading tech companies (but no Microsoft, ouch) to discuss global media disruption, OTA installs for the Bohemian Grove iPad app and the risk of inflation in Farmville. Who knows what they talked about? Until someone spills the beans on Quora, all we can do is speculate. Cheers!

Aid to Israel no longer a sacred cow For the first time in memory, if not ever, a highly respected mainstream columnist is calling on the United States to cut aid to Israel. Writing in the Washington Post, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and columnist Walter Pincus, says, "it is time to examine the funding the United States provides to Israel". Aid to Israel is virtually the only programme - domestic or foreign - that is exempt from every budget-cutting proposal pending in Congress. Back when I was a congressional staffer, I was part of the process by which aid to Israel was secured. Exceptionalism There was always one exception: aid to Israel, which apparently is a local issue for every legislator. At the end of the process, the AIPAC wish list would become law of the land. That is how it has been for decades and not even the current economic crisis is likely to change it. Look for a minute at the bizarre formula that has become an element of US-Israel military aid, the so-called qualitative military edge (QME).

Exclusive: Military’s ‘persona’ software cost millions, used for ‘classified social media activities’ By Stephen C. WebsterTuesday, February 22, 2011 17:49 EDT Most people use social media like Facebook and Twitter to share photos of friends and family, chat with friends and strangers about random and amusing diversions, or follow their favorite websites, bands and television shows. But what does the US military use those same networks for? Well, we can’t tell you: That’s “classified,” a CENTCOM spokesman recently informed Raw Story. One use that’s confirmed, however, is the manipulation of social media through the use of fake online “personas” managed by the military. These “personas” were to have detailed, fictionalized backgrounds, to make them believable to outside observers, and a sophisticated identity protection service was to back them up, preventing suspicious readers from uncovering the real person behind the account. When Raw Story first reported on the contract for this software, it was unclear what the Air Force wanted with it or even if it had been acquired. Mystery bidder

Obama Health Care Law Reaches Supreme Court, With Over Five Hours Of Oral Argument Planned WASHINGTON -- In an order released on Monday morning, the Supreme Court announced that it will hear more than five hours of oral argument in the challenges to the Affordable Care Act brought by 26 states and several private parties. The order indicates the gravity with which the justices view the health care cases, as the Court rarely allots more than an hour to for argument in each case it hears. Within those five-plus hours, the justices divided the time into four separate arguments to address the various questions raised in petitions from the Department of Justice, the 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business. The longest argument, set for two hours, will consider whether Congress had the power under Article 1 of the Constitution to enact the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The cases granted Monday come up from the U.S. Majorities on the 6th Circuit and the D.C. Loading Slideshow Round 1: The District Courts DivideU.S.

Revealed: Air Force ordered software to manage army of fake virtual people By Stephen C. WebsterFriday, February 18, 2011 15:07 EDT Update (below): HBGary Federal among bidders These days, with Facebook and Twitter and social media galore, it can be increasingly hard to tell who your “friends” are. But after this, Internet users would be well advised to ask another question entirely: Are my “friends” even real people? In the continuing saga of data security firm HBGary, a new caveat has come to light: not only did they plot to help destroy secrets outlet WikiLeaks and discredit progressive bloggers, they also crafted detailed proposals for software that manages online “personas,” allowing a single human to assume the identities of as many fake people as they’d like. The revelation was among those contained in the company’s emails, which were dumped onto bittorrent networks after hackers with cyber protest group “Anonymous” broke into their systems. Government involvement Update: The contract has since been taken off FBO.gov. Manufacturing consent “That’s me.

A Decade After 9/11: We Are What We Loathe - Chris Hedges' Columns A Decade After 9/11: We Are What We Loathe Posted on Sep 10, 2011 By Chris Hedges I arrived in Times Square around 9:30 on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. A large crowd was transfixed by the huge Jumbotron screens. Billows of smoke could be seen on the screens above us, pouring out of the two World Trade towers. The south tower went down around 10 a.m. with a guttural roar. I headed toward the spot where the towers once stood, passing dazed, ashen and speechless groups of police officers and firefighters. Scores of people, perhaps more than 200, pushed through the smoke and heat to jump to their deaths from windows that had broken or they had smashed. The images of the “jumpers” proved too gruesome for the TV networks. The “jumpers” did not fit into the myth the nation demanded. The shock of 9/11, however, demanded images and stories of resilience, redemption, heroism, courage, self-sacrifice and generosity, not collective suicide in the face of overwhelming hopelessness and despair.

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