Twitter exec for Middle East is also part-time British army 'psyops' officer • Hacker News Board

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

#51

Post by octosphere » Mon, Sep 30, 2019, 3:29 PM UTC

CharlesColeman wrote: post #46

octosphere wrote: post #36

You need more than one single solitary account to do psyops on Twitter (I know - I regularly play around with Twitter sockpuppet accounts because I have inordinate amounts of free time to do research on the effects of a campaign, albeit small experimental campaigns :p). Twitter have since made it very difficult to keep an account in good standing if you are suspected of doing psyop-type things like auto-liking specif…

> I suspect the new way of doing psyops is to buy multiple smartphones which all have separate IPs due to a GSM/4G network, and have different and distinct useragents due to different Android versions in use. That seems like a lot of enormously expensive trouble to do something that probably could be done a lot easier and cheaper: user agents are trivial to spoof and a sufficiently sophisticated attacker can probably…

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 resolution for example) which is why I would suggest getting a variety of different phones like a mix of legacy Android, newer model Samsungs, iPhones, etc So you have different screen resolutions (which are not trivial to spoof) even different timezones, along with a mix of other unique specs

One caveat to using hundreds (if not thousands of phones) is the cost. I get that. But remember these are the army we are talking about that have a large budget to spend on psyops and can actually pull something like that off. Another caveat to using phones is the lack of dexterity; using a phone is slower than using a desktop environment with keyboard, mouse, et al, although you can extend a phone with a keyboard for faster typing.

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

#52

Post by Cpoll » Mon, Sep 30, 2019, 3:32 PM UTC

dogma1138 wrote: post #47

5trokerac3 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PsyOps main job is convincing occupied peoples that the occupier is their friend. One of the ways they do that is by taking photos of bags of rice being handed out. They also actively work to spread (dis)information.

You’ve seen one too many movies, mostly they are doing about the same job as brand influencers just their brand is HMAF in this case.

What part of the parent post is movie-like? I may be too cynical, but I don't see a difference between "the same job as brand influencers" and "spread (dis)information"

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

#53

Post by dogma1138 » Mon, Sep 30, 2019, 3:36 PM UTC

Cpoll wrote: post #52

dogma1138 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’ve seen one too many movies, mostly they are doing about the same job as brand influencers just their brand is HMAF in this case.

What part of the parent post is movie-like? I may be too cynical, but I don't see a difference between "the same job as brand influencers" and "spread (dis)information"

Because most of their job isn’t spreading disinformation but rather providing good PR for recruitment at home or in the Middle East countering the disinformation campaigns that the likes of ISIS run unless you think that their recruitment operations are not disinformation.

The British army information warfare unit also famously runs the BBC radio relay station in Cyprus providing access to the Middle East and parts of Asia.

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

#54

Post by CharlesColeman » Mon, Sep 30, 2019, 3:42 PM UTC

gnu8 wrote: post #24

EliRivers wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He gets paid the daily rate for his rank (and any applicable modifiers) for each day on duty. So if he spends a weekend at 77 HQ or some training location or other such, on duty, he'll get two days' pay for that (potentially a smidge more if he can claim travel time on the Friday, but you get the idea). Also, reservists attract a tax free bounty each year if they complete their agreed training requirment.

That makes complete sense for a reservist with a day job. I got the impression that this guy is doing his military psyops duty by working at Twitter, thus doing both jobs at once.

> I got the impression that this guy is doing his military psyops duty by working at Twitter, thus doing both jobs at once.

I think the article tries to create that impression, but it doesn't actually say so. Maybe it's just an attempt to make the story more sensational for clicks.

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

#55

Post by AaronFriel » Mon, Sep 30, 2019, 3:43 PM UTC

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…

Yes, but did you ever have a conflict of interest between your two positions? As other people are pointing out, psyops (generally speaking) involves tweaking public opinion in ways that favor the government. This person also happened to have editorial control and influence on Twitter.

If he were just a developer, it might be different, no?

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

#56

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Sep 30, 2019, 3:44 PM UTC

rjf72 wrote: post #30

noego wrote: post #6

This is a conflict of interest, which should erode the trust that anyone would have on twitter. The man is simultaneously responsible for editorial decisions, while also serving in a brigade that "uses social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook ... to wage what the head of the UK military describes as “information warfare”. Imagine finding out that the executive in charge of editorial decisions fo…

Do you think that governments want and work to try to influence public opinion? I mean you don't need to rely on intuition here. As one fun example the current state of modern art is largely because the CIA used it as a propaganda weapon. [1] As the article mentions it was pushed heavily by their "Propaganda Assets Inventory, which at its peak could influence more than 800 newspapers, magazines and public information…

[deleted]

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

#57

Post by vkou » Mon, Sep 30, 2019, 3:45 PM UTC

leroy_masochist wrote: post #18

One thing that mystifies me is why the general population thinks that uniformed PsyOps people are like a real-life version of Kilgrave from Jessica Jones. They're basically the military's version of PR reps; most of their time is spent doing stuff like making fliers and taking photos of bags of rice being handed out. Maybe once in a while they get to blast Slayer at a building of holed-up insurgents. Meanwhile all th…

I must note that when there's a tie between an exec in a foreign country, and it's military/government, nobody has time for that kind of hair splitting.

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

#58

Post by vkou » Mon, Sep 30, 2019, 3:45 PM UTC

dogma1138 wrote: post #53

Cpoll wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What part of the parent post is movie-like? I may be too cynical, but I don't see a difference between "the same job as brand influencers" and "spread (dis)information"

Because most of their job isn’t spreading disinformation but rather providing good PR for recruitment at home or in the Middle East countering the disinformation campaigns that the likes of ISIS run unless you think that their recruitment operations are not disinformation. The British army information warfare unit also famously runs the BBC radio relay station in Cyprus providing access to the Middle East and parts o…

What makes you think the good PR is not disinformation?

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

#59

Post by 5trokerac3 » Mon, Sep 30, 2019, 3:49 PM UTC

dogma1138 wrote: post #47

5trokerac3 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PsyOps main job is convincing occupied peoples that the occupier is their friend. One of the ways they do that is by taking photos of bags of rice being handed out. They also actively work to spread (dis)information.

You’ve seen one too many movies, mostly they are doing about the same job as brand influencers just their brand is HMAF in this case.

No, I was stationed as security for a PsyOps team in Gardez, Afghanistan for four months in 2003.

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

#60

Post by mattlutze » Mon, Sep 30, 2019, 3:54 PM UTC

octosphere wrote: post #36

You need more than one single solitary account to do psyops on Twitter (I know - I regularly play around with Twitter sockpuppet accounts because I have inordinate amounts of free time to do research on the effects of a campaign, albeit small experimental campaigns :p). Twitter have since made it very difficult to keep an account in good standing if you are suspected of doing psyop-type things like auto-liking specif…

The concern isn't that this person is writing posts on behalf of the British government.

The concern is that he influences editorial policy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, while at the same time having a side gig with an agency that uses social media to shape conversations. It would unfortunately be very easy for his side gig to influence the decisions made in his day job, or at the very least very difficult for him to argue with impunity that it doesn't.