You too 050614

A satirical joke around Washington during the Second World War was that OSS stood for "Oh So Social."  OSS was actually the acronym for the military's Office of Strategic Services, America's first spy agency.  The joke referred to OSS's policy of recruiting heavily from the social networks of Ivy League universities.

Since that war social networks continued to cast long shadows on intelligence operations. The military's NSA is mining electronic networks and DOD funds "cultural" research in 57 foreign countries. It has not only been spying on most Americans but also foreign friends and allies. Nations cried foul and diplomatic violations but as some of the smoke cleared it became apparent that other governments were also socially spying.  The Big Brothers sometimes shared information with cousins and leaves piles of exposed data.

Possibly in hopes of collecting data or spreading its message America funded social networks in Afghanistan (Paywast or "to connect' in Dari) and other countries, including Cuba. The Cuban operation was established in expectation of a Cuban Spring similar to the "Arab Spring" uprisings supposedly generated by social media.  The Cuban operations failed and the Arab Spring quickly turned to winter as the western visions degenerated into coups and competing insurgencies that still have not stabilized.

Social networks are double-edged swords for intelligence.  There is information to be captured and cultures to be influenced, but what one can do, so can others.  It is easy to incite mob networks.  It even easier for those mobs to be diverted in unexpected directions.  NSA threatened providers with government power, extorting access and some degree of censorship of web media.  It appears that China and Russia exercises even greater censorship of their media outlets.  Social media is not the haven of free speech, often conceals hidden agendas, Big Brother does watch and is multiplying.

Social mobs, once incited, flow around and through firewalls spreading their own messages.  There is no surety that information is true, either misinformation  (false) or disinformation (deception).  Much of the content may be below backyard rumors but it may serve individual or organizational purposes ranging from demonization to eulogizing.  Bogus Chinese accounts were used to threaten Chinese terrorism and the ISIS (IS, ISL) and Al-Shabab uses Social Media to inflate their violence, strength and influence.  Some of these radical accounts disappear (possibly blocked or to evade tracking) only to reappear under new names with different links to new services.

Social media facilitates social interaction, but also theo-political reactions.  Attempts to spin, censor or shutdown are destined to fail at the hands of the world's tech-smart.  ISIS is creating armies of Twitter-bots to rapidly inflate its power and reach. Don't "friend" the unfriendly and don't believe all you read.  There is already enough who will spread skewed messages that influence and incite.

Remember that it is still possible to meet, have coffee and discuss with real people.