Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media
Military's 'sock puppet' software
creates fake online identities to spread pro-American propaganda
Gen David Petraeus has previously said US online
psychological operations are aimed at 'countering extremist ideology and
propaganda'. Photograph: Cliff Owen/AP
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".Centcom
spokesman Commander Bill Speaks said: "The technology supports
classified blogging activities on foreign-language websites to enable
Centcom to counter violent extremist and enemy propaganda outside the
US."He said none of the interventions would be in English, as it
would be unlawful to "address US audiences" with such technology, and
any English-language use of social media by Centcom was always clearly
attributed. The languages in which the interventions are conducted
include Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto.Once developed, the
software could allow US service personnel, working around the clock in
one location, to respond to emerging online conversations with any
number of co-ordinated Facebook messages, blogposts, tweets, retweets,
chatroom posts and other interventions. Details of the contract suggest
this location would be MacDill air force base near Tampa, Florida, home
of US Special Operations Command.Centcom's contract requires for each
controller the provision of one "virtual private server" located in the United
States
and others appearing to be outside the US to give the impression the
fake personas are real people located in different parts of the world.It
also calls for "traffic mixing", blending the persona controllers'
internet usage with the usage of people outside Centcom in a manner that
must offer "excellent cover and powerful deniability".The
multiple persona contract is thought to have been awarded as part of a
programme called Operation Earnest Voice (OEV), which was first
developed in Iraq as a psychological warfare weapon against the online
presence of al-Qaida supporters and others ranged against coalition
forces. Since then, OEV is reported to have expanded into a $200m
programme and is thought to have been used against jihadists across
Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East.OEV is seen by senior
US commanders as a vital counter-terrorism and counter-radicalisation
programme. In evidence to the US Senate's armed services committee last
year, General David Petraeus, then commander of Centcom, described the
operation as an effort to "counter extremist ideology and propaganda and
to ensure that credible voices in the region are heard". He said the US
military's objective was to be "first with the truth".This month Petraeus's
successor, General James Mattis, told the same committee that OEV "supports all
activities associated with degrading the enemy narrative, including web
engagement and web-based product distribution capabilities".Centcom
confirmed that the $2.76m contract was awarded to Ntrepid, a newly
formed corporation registered in Los Angeles. It would not disclose
whether the multiple persona project is already in operation or discuss
any related contracts.Nobody was available for comment at Ntrepid.In
his evidence to the Senate committee, Gen Mattis said: "OEV seeks to
disrupt recruitment and training of suicide bombers; deny safe havens
for our adversaries; and counter extremist ideology and propaganda." He
added that Centcom was working with "our coalition partners" to develop
new techniques and tactics the US could use "to counter the adversary in
the cyber domain".According to a report by the inspector general of the US
defence department in Iraq, OEV was managed by the multinational forces rather
than Centcom.Asked
whether any UK military personnel had been involved in OEV, Britain's
Ministry of Defence said it could find "no evidence". The MoD refused to
say whether it had been involved in the development of persona
management programmes, saying: "We don't comment on cyber capability."OEV was
discussed last year at a gathering of electronic warfare specialists in
Washington DC,
where a senior Centcom officer told delegates that its purpose was to
"communicate critical messages and to counter the propaganda of our
adversaries".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.It
is unclear whether a persona management programme would contravene UK
law. Legal experts say it could fall foul of the Forgery and
Counterfeiting Act 1981, which states that "a person is guilty of
forgery if he makes a false instrument, with the intention that he or
another shall use it to induce somebody to accept it as genuine, and by
reason of so accepting it to do or not to do some act to his own or any
other person's prejudice". However, this would apply only if a website
or social network could be shown to have suffered "prejudice" as a
result.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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