U.S. spy operation

[Property Is Robbery]

There will be spies among us. But they will get restricted.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks/print

[Agent Ducky]

Unless they're really GOOD spies who won't get restricted because they seem and act utterly legit but subliminally implant propaganda in their posts.

Wait, that made no sense. What exactly do they hope to achieve by this? I mean theoretically obviously they hope to achieve something, but how do they expect it to work?

[Robespierre Richard]

I think there are enough weird and misled people on Revleft with such weird ideologies for a couple dozen more not to matter.

[Agent Ducky]

How do they think they're gonna change radical people's ideas just by feeding them pro-American propaganda? They're just gonna get the sock puppeteers flamed and abused. Take this site. They would get restricted. Take any other site and you find that they would probably get rejected by the community, and have their ideas discounted. Has this program been proven effective before?

[Nolan]

It will be quite effective. For example, imagine you are from a Spanish speaking country and support Chavez. You go onto a forum and see a thread about Chavez in which all of the "Venezuelan" posters (all apparently credible) mock him, call him a dictator, etc.

How will that affect your perception of Venezuelan opinion? This sort of thing can create an illusion of popular support, such as for a pro-American regime or a US occupation, or lack of it with a government like Venezuela's.

[Robespierre Richard]

Yeah but people only go on the internet to check email+troll so it doesn't matter anyway.

[Nolan]

Yeah but people only go on the internet to check email+troll so it doesn't matter anyway.

Maybe that's all you do.

[Robespierre Richard]

Maybe that's all you do.

I'm just saying bro, getting actual opinions from the internet is hella dumb.

bsides its not like trolling+/-arguing has made anyone change their mind, just gauge their idea of a level of support for their ideas as you said above. Rly the more you push a person in an argument the less likely they are to change their mind so it just sounds like this is Operation E-peen more than anything.

[Nolan]

I'm just saying bro, getting actual opinions from the internet is hella dumb.

bsides its not like trolling+/-arguing has made anyone change their mind, just gauge their idea of a level of support for their ideas as you said above. Rly the more you push a person in an argument the less likely they are to change their mind so it just sounds like this is Operation E-peen more than anything.

Yes, it may be but people will do it anyway.

The stated purpose of this is to "counter enemy propaganda." It's not so much convincing the enemy as it is convincing the people who have not completely made up their mind or who are still forming their opinion on the subject that your view is correct, popular, etc.

In my example the person might just walk away thinking "maybe venezuelans really do have Chavez?" It at least plants the thought.

An ideology's "e-penis" is nothing to downplay.

[Agent Ducky]

I see. They could theoretically prevent undecided people from joining a radical ideology but don't have much of a chance of un-convincing people who already follow the ideology.

[Broletariat]

It will be quite effective. For example, imagine you are from a Spanish speaking country and support Chavez. You go onto a forum and see a thread about Chavez in which all of the "Venezuelan" posters (all apparently credible) mock him, call him a dictator, etc.

How will that affect your perception of Venezuelan opinion? This sort of thing can create an illusion of popular support, such as for a pro-American regime or a US occupation, or lack of it with a government like Venezuela's.

I wouldn't really mind this actually, why support a capitalist state and all that.

[Nolan]

I see. They could theoretically prevent undecided people from joining a radical ideology but don't have much of a chance of un-convincing people who already follow the ideology.

That depends on the person reading and the thing the propagandists want to delegitimize.

[Nolan]

I wouldn't really mind this actually, why support a capitalist state and all that.

:( You make me triste.

[Robespierre Richard]

Yes, it may be but people will do it anyway.

The stated purpose of this is to "counter enemy propaganda." It's not so much convincing the enemy as it is convincing the people who have not completely made up their mind or who are still forming their opinion on the subject that your view is correct, popular, etc.

In my example the person might just walk away thinking "maybe venezuelans really do have Chavez?" It at least plants the thought.

An ideology's "e-penis" is nothing to downplay.

idk, maybe there are people who do that. sometimes when I'm really bored I go to newsvine.com and read all the article comments to get angry about them but there's probably bros who participate in those discussions too and think that their opinion matters. I mean there can't just be a million fake accounts on yahoo answers can there?

Do you think people on forums like this+cool blogs are the 'cream of the crop' of internet users?
Do most people go on the internet "because they need a place to shit" or do they really expect to learn new knowledge and become more enlightened?
Are you a "cool internet bro" or do you consider yourself basically a youtube commenter?
Would you be a soldier/general in an internet war or do you think it's a "retarded idea"?

[Agent Ducky]

Or whatever. I just doubt the effectiveness of the propagandists on people who are fully decidedly commited to X idea that the propagandists are trying to fight; so I'd think that it would be more aimed at people who aren't quite sure whether they support X idea or not.

[Leonid Brozhnev]

Do they really think going onto a Jihadist website and typing 'AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!' will make people who visit the site looking to sign up for some Jihad suddenly think 'I am mistaken. I will now give up my ideology, go get a mortgage and purchase an American car'...
Tax dollars at work America... tax dollars at work. At least now rebuttals to pro-US dickheads can be 'Gtfo government appointed troll'.

[Agent Ducky]

Do they really think going onto a Jihadist website and typing 'AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!' will make people who visit the site looking to sign up for some Jihad suddenly think 'I am mistaken. I will now give up my ideology, go get a mortgage and purchase an American car'...
Tax dollars at work America... tax dollars at work.

This is exactly what I was trying to say. I'm doubtful about how well this would work. But I don't think that's what they're doing (going to a Jihadist website and typing "AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!". I think they'd be more subtle (like that example one of the people above used re: Chavez)

[Leonid Brozhnev]

Well, according to the article they are letting 'US service personnel' carry out this task... now, unless these personnel are used to debating the intricacies of World politics I can't see any of these government appointed trolls actually doing much other than making 'America, Fuck yeah!' type posts.

[Robespierre Richard]

"Hey bro cool opinions on the military-industrial complex but i think ur being rly unpatriotic and basically spitting in evry1s face like the firefighters at 9/11 and our brave servicemen and woemn"