US Gov. Software Creates 'Fake People' on Social Networks to Push Propaganda
Way scummy. Sean Kerrigan writes on Examiner.com:
The US government is offering private intelligence companies contracts to create software to manage "fake people" on social media sites and create the illusion of consensus on controversial issues.The contract calls for the development of "Persona Management Software" which would help the user create and manage a variety of distinct fake profiles online. The job listing was discussed in recently leaked emails from the private security firm HBGary after an attack by internet activist last week.
According to the contract, the software would "protect the identity of government agencies" by employing a number of false signals to convince users that the poster is in fact a real person. A single user could manage unique background information and status updates for up to 10 fake people from a single computer.
The software enables the government to shield its identity through a number of different methods including the ability to assign unique IP addresses to each persona and the ability to make it appear as though the user is posting from other locations around the world.
PDF link (no download necessary) to the contract details is here.
See, the government can be as inventive, determined, and timely as any private entity when it really wants to be. This activity should be done through a cabinet level Department of SockPuppetry.
Team Obama wants to be more believable. They see that the average private citizen is more believable than they are. Amazing. By implication, they admit it is a losing proposition to explain their policies. They are going to tweet their way to acceptance, provided that people don't know the source.
Private companies have been prosecuted for supplying faked reviews of their products. That is considered fraudulent advertising. How is this different?
Amazing to me, is that most people respect and trust our government at all levels. They think that such a large and well-funded organization, holding the public trust and large responsibilities, must be implementing carefully researched policies. But, I don't see it.
We must demand that our government produce official, researched justifications for their proposals. For example, where is the analysis that shows High-Speed Passenger Railroads are a good investment (will be profitable). Where are the policy papers?
How can we elect the 4th most popular guy in high school, then let him promote any policy with no more thought than some scribbles on a cocktail napkin?
Andrew_M_Garland at February 22, 2011 10:08 AM
I can't see this actually working. If ten people whom I don't know friended me on Facebook, and then they all started ranting about the same issue, I'd be a bit suspicious. I think that the social network will sniff this kind of thing out very quickly. A propagandist is a propagandist, real or simulated.
Cousin Dave at February 23, 2011 8:20 AM
I'm sorry, but about 85% (if not more) of the US population are sheep.
They believe the internet (if they even look) even when they can just do something as simple a google like "lifelock scam".
I think the AI will fail over time. The question is will it be before the crash or during?
Jim P. at February 23, 2011 8:11 PM
This is really "change you can believe in".
"I can't see this actually working. If ten people whom I don't know friended me on Facebook"
Um, it's not ten people who friend you, it's ten fake people for entirely different regions, friending entirely different people - only ONE is needed to keep a beady watchful eye on you, little citizen, to determine if you are against the government.
And if you read the entire thing, you learn that they even go so far as to dig up names of people you went to school with, but that aren't yet on FB, and create fake FB pages - so it could be someone you even think you know.
I have studied a lot on how despotic governments run, and this is a page right out of the "how to run a despotic dictatorship" textbook - you infiltrate your enemy with false double agents - spies - and it has the effect that they become unable to even *organize* themselves, because they can't organize anything without worrying that whoever they talk to might be a spy. Game over. It works very well. That's why dictatorships usually last very long.
What is particularly worrying is the "chilling effect" this can have on civil action.
Imagine for example that the government turns bad - really bad (some might say that's already happened) - and it's time to use those 2nd Amendment rights to overthrow it. But now you can't even organize with like-minded folk online, because this sort of thing would be prime target number one for the government fake profiles to infiltrate. Now you can't organize anything online, for fear that you are turning over all information of your activities, to the very people who are going to come arrest you for the treasonous acts of trying to overthrow the bad government. (That is how it works in despotic regimes.) In fact, some of the recent legislation proposed after the Giffords legislation was chillingly like that.
This is exactly how countries descend into despotism.
And you ALWAYS have people, always, every step of the way, who simply shrug off any new legislation as benign.
Lobster at February 24, 2011 4:11 PM
"I think the AI will fail over time. The question is will it be before the crash or during?"
It's not AI, they employ people to pretend to be people. Kind of like those undercover FBI agents pretending to be pre-teen girls to entrap pedophiles. One employed human pretends to be 10 people, i.e. manages ten profiles.
Lobster at February 24, 2011 4:12 PM
Do you know what it means to come home at night to a woman who'll give you a little love, a little affection, a little tenderness? It means you're in the wrong house
jose at March 9, 2011 3:39 AM
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