The Pentagon has ordered a review of US psyops on social media
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The VergePentagon officials have ordered a sweeping review of US information warfare operations conducted through social media platforms, The Washington Post reports, after Twitter and Meta both identified networks of fake accounts believed...
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/ In July and August, Twitter and Meta disrupted pro-US influence campaigns on their platforms. Now, the White House is concerned.
Sep 19, 2022, 1:44 PM UTC|
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Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Pentagon officials have ordered a sweeping review of US information warfare operations conducted through social media platforms, The Washington Post reports, after Twitter and Meta both identified networks of fake accounts believed to be connected to the US military.
Citing interviews with unnamed defense officials, The Post states that Colin Kahl, undersecretary for policy within the Department of Defense, instructed all branches of the military that conduct online influence campaigns to provide a full account of their operations by next month.
The call for review comes after revelations in an August report from social network analysis firm Graphika and the Stanford Internet Observatory, which uncovered a series of influence operations that aimed to “promote pro-Western narratives” in countries like Russia, China, and Afghanistan.
The report was based on data provided to the research organizations by Twitter and Meta, which removed the networks from their respective platforms in July and August, citing their policies on platform manipulation and coordinated inauthentic activity. Though researchers were not able to conclusively attribute the origin of the associated influence campaigns, the accounts “consistently advanced narratives promoting the interests of the United States and its allies” while linking to news sites that were backed by the US government and military.
According to The Post, the White House and officials within other federal agencies have become increasingly concerned about the use of clandestine online influence operations in the wake of the report, prompting the review.
Though the US military has long engaged in psychological operations, or “psyops,” the use of fabricated online personas and fake media outlets is both relatively recent and particularly controversial. The data provided by Twitter and Meta showed accounts using AI-generated faces for profile pictures and, in some cases, posing as representatives of fictitious independent media organizations.
The tactics are likely to draw unfavorable comparisons with campaigns run by entities like the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence services. Disinformation operations have been a cornerstone of Russia’s global power projection, used to push false and misleading political narratives in the US, Europe, Ukraine, and elsewhere.
Fingerprint-protect your incognito Android browsing sessions.
Got a handy tip via 9to5Google: If you want to keep an incognito Chrome tab hidden on your Android phone, you’ll soon be able to fingerprint-protect it by going to Settings > Privacy and Security > Lock incognito tabs when you leave Chrome. If you don’t see that setting yet, either wait or try chrome://flags/#incognito-reauthentication-for-android. I tried it myself (see below) and it works like a charm.
You can fingerprint-protect incognito tabs.
Your bitcoin chart of the day.
This great chart from Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal shows tech stocks following the price of major cryptocurrencies. Basically, when Bitcoin has a bad week, it takes the whole industry down with it.
Awesome chart from @TheStalwart newsletter today. It's clear BTC is the leader and Naz the follower.
So if BTC breaks to a lower low and Naz doesn't that would say something. Otherwise, the trend is your friend.
I added the red lines. pic.twitter.com/G42MjrbC2o
Nvidia all but confirms GeForce 40-series launch.
A 40-hour countdown stream by Nvidia includes Easter eggs like a Discord “User40” profile with an Ada Lovelace photo. Lovelace is Nvidia’s rumored next-gen GPU architecture, and all the hints of 40 all but confirm the GeForce RTX 40-series will launch tomorrow during a special broadcast at GTC. There’s even a Ti or Tie joke thrown in for good measure.
Image: Nvidia (Twitch)
Puerto Rico goes completely dark, again.
Nearly five years ago, Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, killing thousands and causing the worst blackout in US history. Reuters reports that the island is without power once again after Hurricane Fiona struck early Sunday.
In 2017, US officials told The Verge that the island couldn’t repair its way out of disaster and would need to rebuild. But just days before Fiona hit, the GAO reported that only $1 billion has been spent on long-term rebuilding projects out of a $32 billion fund.
President Biden says “the pandemic is over” — but that’s not just his call.
Even though Biden also said that COVID-19 is still a problem, expect this 60 Minutes soundbite to become the center of a heated political argument about whether the pandemic is really over. As Verge health reporter Nicole Wetsman explained last year, the “end” of the pandemic won’t come from one person declaring it so — even if that person is a world leader.
Fortnite meets Splatoon.
Epic just released the latest season of Fortnite, which adds new locations, weapons, and a character played by Brie Larson. Perhaps the most notable thing, though, is a traversal mechanic where players can swim across the island as a glob of liquid metal. It feels a lot like Splatoon. Coincidentally, Nintendo released Splatoon 3 earlier this month. Now we just need the squid kids in Fortnite.
Image: Epic Games
Collapsed crypto co-founder Do Kwon insists he’s “not on the run.”
South Korean authorities issued a warrant for Kwon’s arrest after the fall of his company’s Terra stablecoin wiped out $60 billion in funds. Kwon was initially thought to be somewhere in Singapore, but now local police can’t find him. On Twitter, Kwon maintains that he’s not running from the police and says he’s willing to cooperate.
I am not “on the run” or anything similar - for any government agency that has shown interest to communicate, we are in full cooperation and we don’t have anything to hide.
South Korean prosecutors aren’t buying it and said in response that Kwon is “obviously on the run.”
Apple has a Will Smith problem.
The New York Times reporting on the lose-lose situation at Apple over the release of Emancipation, a $120 million Civil War drama starring Will Smith that finished filming about a month before Smith climbed on stage during the Oscars in March and slapped Chris Rock:
“If they shelve the movie, does that tarnish Apple’s reputation? If they release it, does it tarnish their reputation? ... Hollywood likes a win-win situation. This one is lose-lose.”
The film is said to have generated an “overwhelmingly positive reaction” in private audience screenings, according to NYT’s sources, with Smith’s performance described as “volcanic.” Some are now pushing for the film’s release before the end of the year to make it eligible for awards consideration.
Tesla’s Texas Gigafactory reached a new milestone.
After opening the Austin-based plant back in April, Tesla announced on Twitter that the location built its 10,000th Model Y electric SUV. We’re still waiting for the “future home of Cybertruck” to actually start building the thing, though, and that isn’t expected to happen until next year.
What happened to CryptoKitties?
CryptoKitties, a blockchain-based game known for its NFT cats, took off when it first made its debut in 2017. Things have come crashing down since then, sending the value of most CryptoKitties plunging. Matthew Smith over at IEEE Spectrum has an excellent write-up on how the game’s breeding mechanism and Ethereum gas fees contributed to its demise.
CryptoKitty in the past three months is about 0.04 ether, or $40 to $50, which is often less than the gas required to complete the transaction. Even those who want to casually own and breed inexpensive CryptoKitties for fun can’t do it without spending hundreds of dollars.
Developers are already spicing up the iPhone 14’s Dynamic Island in ways I didn’t expect.
One developer, Kriss Smolka created a Pong-style game, called Hit the Island, that challenges you to bounce a ball between your paddle and the Dynamic Island to earn points.
Meanwhile, Christian Selig, the dev behind the Apollo app for Reddit, added the fun option to keep an adorable pixelated pet on the Dynamic Island when using the app. I don’t have an iPhone myself, but I’m looking forward to seeing how other devs put their own spin on the new feature.
The Fifth Circuit really blew up the First Amendment by upholding the Texas social media law.
The law still isn’t in effect, but the court’s opinion sets up a Supreme Court battle over the future of content moderation and the First Amendment. Mike Masnick has a good (if wonky) breakdown up already. It’s… well, it’s one of the dumbest First Amendment opinions in a long time.
The fact that Oldham claims, that “the Platforms are no different than Verizon or AT&T” makes me question how anyone could take anything in this ruling seriously.
Forget vinyl.
If you appreciate media preservation, make some time for this Q&A with the “last man standing in the floppy disk business,” Tom Persky of floppydisk.com.
The customers that are the easiest to provide for are the hobbyists – people who want to buy ten, 20, or maybe 50 floppy disks. However, my biggest customers — and the place where most of the money comes from — are the industrial users...Probably half of the air fleet in the world today is more than 20 years old and still uses floppy disks in some of the avionics.
New terrible First Amendment ruling dropped.
Remember when a Texas appeals court decided to blow up internet moderation with no explanation? Well, it finally explained itself, and so far I don’t feel any better. We’re still working our way through the decision, but you can read it below. For now, though, the Supreme Court already temporarily blocked the law while its court battle continues.
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