According to spy literature, covert operators love their toys. They do not like when you threaten to take their toys away.
The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon is to conduct a "sweeping audit" of the US military's social media-driven psychological operations. A lot of people at the Department of Defense aren't happy.
The defense official told WaPo that combatant commanders were excited. They were very excited to use the new authorities. The defense contractors were eager to win classified contracts.
The officials told WaPo that most of the take-down happened within the last two to three years. A fake story about organ theft was intended to encourage a divide between Afghans and Iranians.
The social platforms were not taking US military content down for the sake of truth. David Agranovich, Facebook's director for global threat disruption, warned the Department of Defense that if they can snuff out the fake accounts, so can international rivals.
One person involved told the paper that Agranovich's point was that you got caught. It's a problem.
If other nations do it, why shouldn't we, according to officials at the Department of Defense.
According to an unnamed senior defense official, our adversaries are operating in the information domain. Some people think we shouldn't do anything in that area. Ceding a whole domain to an adversary would be a bad idea. Stronger policy guardrails are needed.
That sounds flimsy and dangerous to say the least. The Pentagon's toys are not their playground at the end of the day. It's within their rights to remove any content they deem unsuitable for use on Facebook andTwitter. Isn't that what we've asked them to do?
The Pentagon has opened a sweeping review of psychological operations.
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