US military weaponizes sockpuppets

[Eugen Leitl]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8388603/US-military-creates-fake-online-personas.html

US military creates fake online personas

The US military awarded a contract for software to create 500 fake personas
on social networks in order to secretly influence online debate in its
favour, it has been reported.

Facebook: The move has angered troops who regularly use networking sites to
keep in touch with family and friends 

Photo: GETTY By Christopher Williams,
Technology Correspondent 4:54PM GMT 17 Mar 2011

The $2.76m contract was won by Ntrepid, a Californian firm, and called for an
"online persona management service" that would enable 50 military spies to
manage 10 fake identities each.

The personas should be "replete with background , history, supporting
details, and cyber presences that are technically, culturally and
geographacilly consistent", a US Central Command (Centcom) tender document
said.

It added: "Individual applications will enable an operator to exercise a
number of different online persons from the same workstation and without fear
of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries.

"Personas must be able to appear to originate in nearly any part of the world
and can interact through conventional online services and social media
platforms." The project would be based at MacDill Air Force base in Florida,
The Guardian reported. The contract was first revealed by The Raw Story, a US
news website.

It also called for internet traffic from the project to be "mixed" with
traffic from outside Centcom to provide "excellent cover and powerful
deniability".  A Centcom spokesman however said the fake social media
personas would not "address US audiences".

"The technology supports classified blogging activities on foreign-language
websites to enable Centcom to counter violent extremist and enemy propaganda
outside the US," said Commander Bill Speaks.

If used against US citizens such "sock-puppetry" techniques, as they are
known online, would bring legal fire on the military.  The MoD meanwhile said
it could find no evidence that British forces was involved in Operation
Earnest Voice, a $200m anti-jihadism psychological operation, of which
Centcom's "online persona management service" contract was thought to be
part.