US Military Manipulates the Social Media

Every single day the majority of the United States' youth is using different types of social media programs such as Twitter and Facebook. Could this be part of the governments plan? According to an article written for "Project Censored", the government is developing software that will manipulate fake social media profiles to push different messages into active users heads. This program will allow one US serviceman to control about ten different profiles. To make matters worse all of this is going on over seas in the Middle East and Central Asia. The idea behind this is unjust, this enables the government to push whatever information they want out onto the internet. In my opinion people are more likely to believe what is being said on websites like Facebook or Twitter, it has been proven before. Countless times celebrity death rumors have gone out on Twitter and Facebook that everyone believes, all it takes is one person to start a chain reaction. That is exactly what the government is taking advantage of, especially now that we live in a generation where the internet is a part of mostly everyones life everyday.

This idea is a part of a program called "Operation Earnest Voice OEV" according to Project Censored. It was first developed in Iraq as a psychological warfare weapon. It is troubling to also read that this effort was successful, especially because it is all happening in a country that we've been at war inside of for many years. Throughout my research I came across a group by the name of "anonymous", a hacktivist group that was founded in 2003. They are unknown people who hack websites to gain classified information to share with the public. Their most recent effort was against the Westboro Church because they protested the funerals of the children they had died in the recent Connecticut school shooting. According to this YouTube video that was posted on June 3^rd, 2011, the group send a message to NATO defending themselves on multiple cases. In the message they state,

“What you conveniently fail to mention is that HBGary itself was engaged in illegal activity, including but not limited to: being contracted by the United States Chamber of Commerce to spy on & discredit unions and progressive groups, being contracted by the Bank of America to launch a campaign of misinformation against Wikileaks and it's supporters (going so far as to blackmail journalists), developing a new type of Windows rootkit to spy upon individuals, and developing astroturfing software that could make an army of fake social media profiles to manipulate and sway public opinion on controversial issues.”

This further confirms the truth behind the plan that the government has to sway public opinion through fake social media accounts. It also proves how unjust and illegal it is to do so. The next video I came across is titled "Hidden Agendas in Social Media Cyber Warfare". It goes into how the US is educating other parts of the world to use technology to promote democracy. They speak about a "panic button" that can be uploaded on any phone, the purpose is to delete information on your deceive quickly if you're arrested. This clearly has negative effects and positive effects, it will most likely help drug dealers and terrorists. Although they claim that they have the best intentions when implementing this program. The US had organized training sessions to educate people on how to use their new programs. Whats shocking to me is the effort that the Untied States puts forth to help other countries when there are issue to be dealt with at home.

In the end, the moral of the story is that it is possible for the government to do as they wish. These fake social media profiles can be harmful in that they are going to be used to manipulate social situations on the internet. The government is aiming to take advantage of technology. If you want to put a stop to these ideas and programs, you're going to have to manage what you read and who you interact with in the cyber world.