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Twitter exec for Middle East is also part-time British army 'psyops' officer

middleeasteye.net

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Re: Twitter exec for Middle East is also part-time British army 'psyops' officer

#121

Post by jdc »

sittingnut wrote: post #110
jdc wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see where you're coming from, but in the Amnesty case it's fairly obvious that the communication originates from a campaign (due to timing if nothing else) and in the Israel case it's not. Then there's a strong argument to be made that Amnesty gets the moral high ground because their goals are altruistic. Either way, I think it's an apples to oranges comparison.

altruism?! organizations like amnesty and human rights watch, regularly employee people in and out of western governments and are part of the governing western elite. no wonder that while they are always quick to call out and denounce some third world authoritarians, and adversaries of west, they are far more muted when it comes to rights violations by western leaders(even in minority of cases where they don't simply…

Source? They don't come off especially muted on the USA. On this one page they mention:

* civilian drone-strike killings

* suspension of travel from Muslim-major countries

* attacks on rights of women & girls

* new Guantánamo Bay transfers

* gun violence

* death sentences

https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/americas/united-states-...

Re: Twitter exec for Middle East is also part-time British army 'psyops' officer

#122

Post by tolstoshev »

pdpi wrote: post #3

This is... tricky. There's two ways you can interpret the situation. One is that Twitter has a desire to use the information warfare skills directly to manipulate the narrative on its platform. The other is that they recognise external actors are very likely to want to do exactly that, and this sort of hire is a great defensive move. Twitter will never admit to the former and will always publicly state the latter. I…

It's called the Department of Defense, not Offense :)

Re: Twitter exec for Middle East is also part-time British army 'psyops' officer

#123

Post by colordrops »

tptacek wrote: post #63
colordrops wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should be obvious that my point is that it's one organization with a unified purpose regardless of what unit they are part of.

It was not at all obvious, and further, you made a claim ("gun fire and cluster bombs") that implied you had some direct knowledge of the topic. Do you, or did your claim just sound right to your ears?

Are you at all serious in implying that military propaganda and warfare aren't obviously related?

Re: Twitter exec for Middle East is also part-time British army 'psyops' officer

#124

Post by ryacko »

concordDance wrote: post #109
octosphere wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose it could be done a lot cheaper and easier, but don't forget the initial research required to figure out how to do it efficiently. All the trial and error required to create a set of OPSEC rules to abide by as you operate. In terms of useragents, you are right that they are easy to spoof; I actually meant the device fingerprints aren't easy to spoof (Twitter probably looks at heuristics like screen resolutio…

> I actually meant the device fingerprints aren't easy to spoof Device fingerprints aren't easy to spoof for the average IT nerd, they are trivial to spoof for NSA. I know enough that I could probably spoof most websites given a couple of days of research and poking. Now, don't get me wrong, my odds of convincing Google I'm actually two people are basically nil, even NSA might struggle to just manufacture Googleproof…

You can spoof device fingerprints, but you can't spoof the top 100 common devices easily.

Re: Twitter exec for Middle East is also part-time British army 'psyops' officer

#125

Post by golemiprague »

So any reservist in the army can't have a regular job? What about in countries like Korea or Israel where almost every person is a reservist for the army?

Also, someone who is aligned with the army objectives is worst than someone else who is aligned with any other political objectives, whatever they may be?

Re: Twitter exec for Middle East is also part-time British army 'psyops' officer

#126

Post by cwkoss »

Gibbon1 wrote: post #114
bigYahnz wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't pretty much all these companies have some pretty questionable ties to governments? Faceberg had CIA funding(Q-Tel), right around the time they shut down a software project which had similar goals, no?

Good question why did the completely unknown but sociopathic Zuckerberg get enough funding to squash everyone else?

I believe Facebook already had social media market dominance before CIA invested.

Re: Twitter exec for Middle East is also part-time British army 'psyops' officer

#127

Post by news_hacker »

throwaway829 wrote: post #77
ratacat wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The term public relations was actually an explicit rebranding of the term Propaganda after it started to develop a negative association in the public eye. Look up Edward Bernays, it's a fascinating bit of history that's not really talked about much. http://theconversation.com/the-manipulation-of-the-american-...

If you're into documentaries, "The Century of the Self" covers this subject excellently: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=century+of+self

One of my favorite documentaries! It didn't just give me new knowledge, but re-framed the way I view & process future knowledge.

Re: Twitter exec for Middle East is also part-time British army 'psyops' officer

#128

Post by skinnymuch »

Gibbon1 wrote: post #114
bigYahnz wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't pretty much all these companies have some pretty questionable ties to governments? Faceberg had CIA funding(Q-Tel), right around the time they shut down a software project which had similar goals, no?

Good question why did the completely unknown but sociopathic Zuckerberg get enough funding to squash everyone else?

If Zuckerberg is so evidently a sociopath. What does that make people like Larry Ellison from a far? Or other individual tech giants who backstabbed other founders or early employees to their faces (Twitter founders, mainly Ev and Jack or Snap founders as examples)

Re: Twitter exec for Middle East is also part-time British army 'psyops' officer

#129

Post by skinnymuch »

Mikeb85 wrote: post #97
cameronbrown wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except almost every mainstream news source.. ever? Have you seen the amount of wrong information be blamed on Tweets?

Which is why mainstream news is viewed as untrustworthy by most people.

Yet that’s what most people still go by.

Re: Twitter exec for Middle East is also part-time British army 'psyops' officer

#130

Post by jackvalentine »

chrissnell wrote: post #42
ptero wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure about the general population, but folks here are largely zeroing in on the conflict of interest issues. At least in the US, I would expect serving "PsyOps" people to be government employees, supported by taxes and subject to general oversight that taxpayers (at least in theory) should be able to exercise. I would have no problems if he went to Twitter after retiring, but I see such double-dipping as a curren…

What? I am a US Army Reserve officer and I've served my country for the last ten years while working in tech. I've been in the technology industry for 25 years and have been in management and am currently a principal engineer for a large SFBA company. My military service is what I did one weekend a month and has no connection to my tech job, other than providing me with people leadership experience that readily trans…

> We're just a slice of the nation and no different than you.

I don't want to be a dick to you because I should take you at your word in the absence of evidence otherwise. I think the issue here is you're paid by and subject to a military hierarchy with all the baggage that entails - that makes you different.

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