US Reviews Psychological Warfare Operations Amid Disinformation Reports

The US Department of Defense has launched a overview of its psychological warfare operations after the invention of pretend accounts on social media selling pro-West disinformation, an official confirmed Tuesday.

Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder confirmed the overview after a Washington Post report mentioned social media giants Facebook and Twitter had shut down quite a lot of faux accounts suspecting they have been created by the US army.

Ryder didn’t say affirm or deny that the army was behind faux accounts, and mentioned the data nonetheless wanted to be reviewed. 

He cautioned in opposition to assuming that the Defense Department was behind the accounts, leaving it doable that one other authorities company was concerned.

He mentioned the overview is “an opportunity for us to assess the current work that’s being done in this arena.”

The Washington Post famous a report final month by Graphika and the Stanford Internet Observatory on pro-Western covert affect operations.

The report mentioned Twitter and Facebook dad or mum Meta had eliminated practically 150 US and Britain-origin accounts in July and August participating in “inauthentic behavior.”

The Graphika-Stanford investigation mentioned that, after analysing the accounts they found an interconnected net of accounts on eight social media platforms that had been utilizing “deceptive tactics” to advertise pro-Western narratives within the Middle East and in Central Asia.

The accounts got here from a sequence of campaigns over 5 years quite than one single effort, the report mentioned.

The accounts “consistently advanced narratives promoting the interests of the United States and its allies while opposing countries including Russia, China, and Iran,” it mentioned.

Citing unnamed authorities sources, the Washington Post tied at the very least among the exercise to the Pentagon, and mentioned that officers of the US Central Command, which oversees operations within the Middle East, have been “facing scrutiny.”

Ryder mentioned the army’s psychological operations, or “military information support operations,” are structured and authorized, and are to assist actions within the subject.

“These are not public affairs operations,” he mentioned. 

“It’s an aspect of warfare as old as warfare itself, and we conduct those operations in support of national security priorities,” he informed reporters.

He famous that army deception operations have been essential in World War II, and are an integral a part of the warfighting toolkit.

“There are opportunities in conducting operations against adversaries where you may want to use information in a way that is going to help them think a certain way – not truthful information,” he mentioned.

“What I would highlight is that they must be undertaken in compliance with US law and Defense Department policy and we have safeguards in place and are committed to observing those safeguards,” he mentioned.