21st Century Warfare: SOCOM places fake news, social media in its crosshairs

by Alex Hollings · April 13, 2018

As tensions between global powers once again come to the forefront of the national security discussion, the United States finds itself facing not only traditional threats, but entirely new kinds of warfare borne out of rapidly advancing social technologies. Perception management, manipulation and propaganda have always played a vital role in warfare, but the advent of popular social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, as well as concerted digital campaigns mounted by foreign governments, have expanded the role of information warfare in the 21st century — and the United States Special Operations Command, normally thought of as a kinetic force, rather than a digital one, wants to ensure America doesn’t fall behind in this new theater.

“Russian troll farms through Facebook and Twitter tried to divide America and inject fake news into our public life.” SOCOM said in a statement. “Communications technologies by themselves are neutral, yet it is bad actors who can hide in plain sight and leverage attacks using fake accounts making the threat very real. In this way, information can become weaponized and threaten a nation’s sovereignty.”

About Alex Hollings

Alex Hollings writes on a breadth of subjects ranging from fitness to foreign policy, all presented through the lens of his experiences as a U.S. Marine, athlete and scholar. A football player, rugby player and fighter, Hollings has spent the better part of his adult life competing in some of the most physically demanding sports on the planet. Hollings possesses a master's degree in communications from Southern New Hampshire University, as well as a bachelor's degree in Corporate and Organizational Communications from Framingham State University.

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LPD256
Tim-I took one of our congressional candidates to the range today to shoot several suppressed guns and gave a lesson in how NICS works......or doesn’t. Last night she was at a March for Lives meeting. Politics!
John R.
I'll check it out. That's another thing. Teachers get paid shit so schools are shorthanded all all the time. Teachers have an extremely important job yet they get paid crumbs and no one wants the job. Maybe if there were more teachers, they wouldn't be so stretched on time. Everyone talks about national security but no one realizes that if kids aren't taught how to think critically we are setting up an entire generation to become easy pickings for manipulation by international (and even internal) actors. Because of this, education is easily the most important national security issue that we face. Yet school budgets are the first thing our politicians cut. But somehow we are still able to afford billions of dollars in ordnance for some random brown dude halfway across the world. "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." - Abraham Lincoln
Alan t
Right on with the parents and guardian thing. A lot of parents treat school as a babysitting service.
tim e
Common core was implemented to provide a basis for ensuring basic knowledge and skills would be included in a school systems curriculum - it seems to have evolved into the monster we have today from well intentioned no child left behind policy initiatives and isolated examples of local school boards going off the deep end with what was being taught. With standardized testing being the instrument for evaluating school performance I dont blame the schools for prioritizing efforts in achieving test scores that ensures funding for the next years budget and if there is time left over work on the skills you mention. My sister teaches in a K-12 and says about 40% of her time is spent on disciplinary issues with 5% of her students. The parents/guardians of today's students bear a great deal of the responsibility for the deficit of achievement. You may find Howard Gardners book five minds for the future enlightening regarding the last point in your post - of which I agree wholeheartedly.
tim e
Voter apathy in this country is a real shame - so many people are disgusted with the candidates and the process they just choose not to participate. Mid terms here are shaping up to be some hotly contested races we will probable run close to 50% participation locally due to some hot button referendums.