

British army creates team of Facebook warriors - coffeeyesplease
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/31/british-army-facebook-warriors-77th-brigade

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ojbyrne
I immediately thought of the book "New Model Army":

[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0575083638/](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0575083638/)

"A giant has brought war to the fields and towns of England's heartland. When
the British army brings in air support and deploys heavy weapons he simply
melts away, only to form again somewhere else and deliver another devastating
blow. He is called Pantegrel, and he is a New Model Army—a giant whose
thoughts flow through countless wireless connections, whose intelligence comes
from the internet and real-time camera updates, whose mind is made up of
thousands of minds, each deciding what he will choose to do. He has chosen the
joy of the fight, and his fury is truly democratic—he is me and you. This is a
terrifying vision of a near future war as new technologies allow the world's
first truly democratic army to wrest control from the powers that be..."

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harkyns_castle
Might be naive, but it feels to me like this type of propoganda from the
various militaries and TLA's should be illegal.

I wonder if that's where Google were going with their real name policy... if
you can link stuff back to a real person, they're less likely to be a shill.
Maybe being generous there.

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dmckeon
So now social media is a platform for the continuation of war by other
means?[0] This feels like a slippery slope potentially leading to a morass of
misinformation and confusion, not only among the putative enemy but for all
readers.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_von_Clausewitz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_von_Clausewitz)

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hackuser
Social media operations are not unique to the UK. For example,

[http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2015/01/what-your-
faceb...](http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2015/01/what-your-facebook-
posts-mean-us-special-forces/104031/)

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walterbell
See also _Grassroots for Hire_ , based on a dissertation
[http://www.techsoc.com/grassroots.html](http://www.techsoc.com/grassroots.html)

 _" Edward T. Walker, a professor of sociology and that University of
California, Los Angeles, captured the results of his detailed study of
political consulting firms specializing in grassroots mobilization in his
book, Grassroots for Hire: Public Affairs Consultants in American Democracy.
The product of several years’ work interviewing grassroots consulting firms
and analyzing data on the industry, Walker’s book offers a dispassionate and
detailed look into this category of firms."_

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swatow
The Israeli military has been doing this for a while:

[http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-
east/...](http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/israel-
and-palestine/130605/idf-israel-isreali-defense-forces-social-media-twitter-
facebook)

[http://www.fastcompany.com/3003305/inside-israeli-
militarys-...](http://www.fastcompany.com/3003305/inside-israeli-militarys-
social-media-squad)

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davecheney
We have always been at war with East Asia, like my status!

