
Newest U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy: Trolling - rdl
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/07/counterterrorism-trolls/all/
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srean
Israel has been using/endorsing similar tactics with software-assisted, crowd-
sourced trolling tool(s) since ages. The assistance is in the form of curation
of targets to troll against, not generate troll speech.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaphone_desktop_tool>

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/06/giyus_megaphone/>

<http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=42902>

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blvr
Israel?

Or pro-Israel-ists?

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pmorici
This is similar to one of the tactics credited with marginalizing the KKK

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman_%28radio%29#.E2.80.9CC...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman_%28radio%29#.E2.80.9CClan_of_the_Fiery_Cross.E2.80.9D)

The impact it had was discussed in the book freakonomics.

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spyIye
Having been involved in various online activist forums including high-profile
Anonymous and Occupy groups as well as low-profile environmentalist and
political theater groups, I'm pretty sure this kind of thing has been going on
for a while and not just for supposed terrorists groups. And sadly it can be
very effective. When an online forum has dedicated professional accounts that
post 24 hours a day 7 days a week (meaning there are multiple people operating
them) and they are very familiar with all the internal group dynamics and
personalities, and they use multiple demoralizing techniques from subtle
misinformation to playing off different personalities to crass attacks, the
effects can really destroy the cohesion of a group and drive people away. It's
a struggle figuring out how to combat this.

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calibraxis
I don't know which forums you visit, but in my experience trolls are always a
failure of modding. Activists are vulnerable to strange notions of censorship
(as if everyone should be able to scribble everywhere on the internet), and
this bias makes them ascribe supernatural powers to trolls (like they can
defeat any moderation).

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nazgulnarsil
This is a fundamental misunderstanding of how human psychology works. Mocking
and marginalizing a group makes them more likely to engage in extremist acts,
not less.
[http://lesswrong.com/lw/lr/evaporative_cooling_of_group_beli...](http://lesswrong.com/lw/lr/evaporative_cooling_of_group_beliefs/)

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andrewflnr
The point is, if you make them look stupid to the broader population, people
are less likely to come in. It's about recruitment, not mitigation of existing
terrorists, at least how I understood it.

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gliese1337
Right. So the question to ask, then, is: will the potential shorter-term
increase in attacks from trolled terrorists be more or less than the longer-
term decrease in attacks due to fewer new terrorists being around?

If it were Americans (or anyone else who worries about being a terrorist
target already) doing the trolling, I would seriously worry about that. But if
it's local people discouraging each other, I figure the risk is pretty small.

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SimonPStevens
Is it possible that the trolling we experience on English language forums is
really the rest of the world using this strategy to tie us up in petty
arguments so we don't have time to do any real work?

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WiseWeasel
Take responsibility for your own society's trolls, and for our gullibility to
them.

It would be easy to point the finger at outsiders hating us for our freedom.
In order to defeat the troll, we must recognize him in ourselves, however.

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peterwwillis
It's funny that this has been going on 'underground' for a few years (at least
2009) by a bunch of different groups. These two knuckleheads (hi HackMiami!)
give a talk in 2010 about terrorist forums and how to troll them:
<http://www.tagtele.com/videos/voir/62093>

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alan_cx
Just a personal observation: On usenet, it looks to me like the political and
religious right have been using trolling for years. IMHO, its a bizarre thing
that political trolling looks almost exclusively right wing. Heh, what ever
the politics, at least they put the leg work in. Dunno if it has any material
effect though.

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sharkweek
the left has Colbert -- who a quantifiable number of people from the right
feel is an actual conservative

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gscott
He can be conservative and fun at the same time. It is almost like he is
trolling the left, the reverse of his intended mission.

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AJ007
If you think he is trolling the left, your the one being trolled.

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zephjc
Making already pent-up wanna-be jihadis angry and look foolish is like
shooting fish in a barrel.

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maxwin
They learned it from the chinese. In china,this trolling scheme has been
employed for years. There is even a name given (five cents) - meaning they are
hired for cheap to praise everything the government does and demonize the
activists.

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k3n
Anonymous: the offense that America needs, but not the offense that America
wants.

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Androsynth
This is a cross between propaganda and the infiltration of extreme domestic
organizations by the FBI in the 70's.

Yet more snipping at leaves while the roots continue to grow.

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harshreality
The roots are the underlying discontent that motivates radicalization? Western
diplomacy is not going to eliminate mid-east discontent any time soon, I
agree.

This effort seeks to replace the radicalization option with something else.
What's wrong with that? There are lots of discontents in the world, and not
many of them kill other people.

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jriley
They are implementing the SNL skit where Mayor Giuliani fights graffiti by
adding "sucks" right under it.

<http://www.hulu.com/watch/277719>

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bjourne
Nope, this will never catch on. The minute they realize that the exact same
principles they use to subvert al-Qaeida propaganda can be used against their
own propaganda, they will have to shut down the program. You can't teach
critical thinking, humour and satire to your army and not have them use the
same tools against you.

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sukuriant
But, in a country designed like the United States, wouldn't it be better for
our denizens to have critical thinking, humor and satire? I mean, we're
supposed to be a country that's full of people that say "no" to stupidity and
that can laugh at -- and then work to fix our faults, through the channels
that were established at out creation.

It's the democratic republic part of this country that makes it so great ---
when used by critical thinkers.

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ldayley
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink>

Use groupthink to ease the angries out into tge open. Way to raise the bar on
discourse, military-industrial complex.

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Dylan16807
I'm sorry, I can't tell what your point is. Please explain what about
groupthink and/or this situation you mean.

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Produce
Lame. They could address the reasons that people hate them but instead they
invade foreign lands then use propaganda to convince people that "it's OK, our
bombs contain freedom."

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ck2
Isn't this exactly what China does to catch dissidents?

