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zvaigzdelasas · 2 years

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WaPo - Pentagon opens sweeping review of clandestine psychological operations

Complaints about the U.S. military’s influence operations using Facebook and Twitter have raised concern in the White House and federal agencies.[...]

The Pentagon has ordered a sweeping audit of how it conducts clandestine information warfare after major social media companies identified and took offline fake accounts suspected of being run by the U.S. military in violation of the platforms’ rules.

Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy, last weekinstructed the military commands that engage in psychological operations online to provide a full accounting of their activities by next month after the White House and somefederal agencies expressed mounting concerns over the Defense Department’s attempted manipulation of audiences overseas, according to several defense and administration officials familiar with the matter.

The takedowns in recent years by Twitter and Facebook of more than 150 bogus personas and media sites created in the United States was disclosed last month by internet researchers Graphika and the Stanford Internet Observatory. While the researchers did not attribute the sham accounts to the U.S. military, two officials familiar with the matter said that U.S. Central Command is among those whose activities are facing scrutiny. Like others interviewed for this report, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.

The researchers did not specify when the takedowns occurred, but those familiar with the matter said they were within the past two or three years. Some were recent, they said, and involved posts from the summer that advanced anti-Russia narratives citing the Kremlin’s “imperialist” war in Ukraine and warning of the conflict’s direct impact on Central Asian countries.[...]

Centcom, headquartered in Tampa, has purview over military operations across 21 countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Central and South Asia. A spokesman declined to comment. [...]

Spokespersons for Facebook and Twitter declined to comment.

According to the researchers’ report, the accounts taken down included a made-up Persian-language media site that shared content reposted from the U.S.-funded Voice of America Farsi and Radio Free Europe. Another, it said, was linked to a Twitter handle that in the past had claimed to operate on behalf of Centcom.

One fake account posted an inflammatory tweet claiming that relatives of deceased Afghan refugees had reported bodies being returned from Iran with missing organs, according to the report. The tweet linked to a video that was part of an article posted on a U.S.-military affiliated website.

Centcom has not commented on whether these accounts were created by its personnel or contractors. If the organ-harvesting tweet is shown to be Centcom’s, one defense official said, it would “absolutely be a violation of doctrine and training practices.”

Independent of the report, The Washington Post has learned that in 2020 Facebook disabled fictitious personas created by Centcom to counter disinformation spread by China suggesting the coronavirus responsible for covid-19 was created at a U.S. Army lab in Fort Detrick, Md., according to officials familiar with the matter. The pseudo profiles — active in Facebook groups that conversed in Arabic, Farsi and Urdu, the officials said — were used to amplify truthful [sic] information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the virus’s origination in China.

The U.S. government’s use of ersatz social media accounts, though authorized by law and policy, has stirred controversy inside the Biden administration, with the White House pressing the Pentagon to clarify and justify its policies. The White House, agencies such as the State Department and even some officials within the Defense Department have been concerned that the policies are too broad, allowing leeway for tactics that even if used to spread truthful information, risk eroding U.S. credibility, several U.S. officials said.

“Our adversaries are absolutely operating in the information domain,” said a second senior defense official. “There are some who think we shouldn’t do anything clandestine in that space. Ceding an entire domain to an adversary would be unwise. But we need stronger policy guardrails.” [Editor's Note: Lolling & Lmaoing]

A spokeswoman for the National Security Council, which is part of the White House, declined to comment.

Kahl disclosed his review at a virtual meeting convened by the National Security Council on Tuesday, saying he wants to know what types of operations have been carried out, who they’re targeting, what tools are being used and why military commanders have chosen those tactics, and how effective they have been, several officials said.

The message was essentially, “You have to justify to me why you’re doing these types of things,” the first defense official said.

Pentagon policy and doctrine discourage the military from peddling falsehoods, but there are no specific rules mandating the use of truthful information for psychological operations. For instance, the military sometimes employs fiction and satire for persuasion purposes, but generally the messages are supposed to stick to facts, officials said.

In 2020, officers at Facebook and Twitter contacted the Pentagon to raise concerns about the phony accounts they were having to remove, suspicious they were associated with the military. That summer, David Agranovich, Facebook’s director for global threat disruption, spoke to Christopher C. Miller, then assistant director for Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict, which oversees influence operations policy, warning him that if Facebook could sniff them out, so could U.S. adversaries, several people familiar with the conversation said.

“His point‚” one person said, “was ‘Guys, you got caught. That’s a problem.’ ”[...]

With the rise of Russia and China as strategic competitors, military commanders have wanted to fight back, including online. And Congress supported that. Frustrated with perceived legal obstacles to the Defense Department’s ability to conduct clandestine activities in cyberspace, Congress in late 2019 passed a law affirming that the military could conduct operations in the “information environment” to defend the United States and to push back against foreign disinformation aimed at undermining its interests. The measure, known as Section 1631, allows the military to carry out clandestine psychological operations without crossing what the CIA has claimed as its covert authority, alleviating some of the friction that had hindered such operations previously.

“Combatant commanders got really excited,” recalled the first defense official. “They were very eager to utilize these new authorities. The defense contractors were equally eager to land lucrative classified contracts to enable clandestine influence operations.”[...]

Last year, with a new administration in place, Facebook’s Agranovich tried again. This time he took his complaint to President Biden’s deputy national security adviser for cyber, Anne Neuberger. Agranovich, who had worked at the NSC under Trump, told Neuberger that Facebook was taking down fake accounts because they violated the company’s terms of service, according to people familiar with the exchange.

The accounts were easily detected by Facebook, which since Russia’s campaign to interfere in the 2016 presidential election has enhanced its ability to identify mock personas and sites. In some cases, the company had removed profiles, which appeared to be associated with the military, that promoted information deemed by fact-checkers to be false, said a person familiar with the matter.

Agranovich also spoke to officials at the Pentagon. His message was: “We know what DOD is doing. It violates our policies. We will enforce our policies” and so “DOD should knock it off,” said a U.S. official briefed on the matter.

In response to White House concerns, Kahl ordered a review of Military Information Support Operations, or MISO, the Pentagon’s moniker for psychological operations. A draft concluded that policies, training and oversight all needed tightening, and that coordination with other agencies, such as the State Department and the CIA, needed strengthening, according to officials.

The review also found that while there were cases in which fictitious information was pushed by the military, they were the result of inadequate oversight [sic] of contractors and personnel training — not systemic problems [sic], officials said.

Pentagon leadership did little with the review, two officials said, before Graphika and Stanford published their report on Aug. 24, which elicited a flurry of news coverage and questions for the military.

The State Department and CIA have been perturbed by the military’s use of clandestine tactics. Officers at State have admonished the Defense Department, “Hey don’t amplify our policies using fake personas, because we don’t want to be seen as creating false grass roots efforts,” [sic] the first defense official said.

One diplomat put it this way: “Generally speaking, we shouldn’t be employing the same kind of tactics that our adversaries are using because the bottom line is we have the moral high ground [sic]. [...] We promote [our set of] values around the world and when we use tactics like those, it just undermines our argument about who we are.”

Psychological operations to promote U.S. narratives overseas are nothing new in the military, but the popularity of western social media across the globe has led to an expansion of tactics, including the use of artificial personas and images — sometimes called “deep fakes.” The logic is that views expressed by what appears to be, say, an Afghan woman or an Iranian student might be more persuasive [!] than if they were openly pushed by the U.S. government. [...]

A key issue for senior policymakers now is determining whether the military’s execution of clandestine influence operations is delivering results. “Is the juice worth the squeeze? Does our approach really have the potential for the return on investment we hoped or is it just causing more challenges?” one person familiar with the debate said.[...]

Clandestine influence operations have a role in support of military operations, but it should be a narrow one with “intrusive oversight” by military and civilian leadership, said Michael Lumpkin, a former senior Pentagon official handling information operations policy and a former head of the State Department’s Global Engagement Center. “Otherwise, we risk making more enemies than friends.”

19 Sep 22

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gougerre · 6 months

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I think its extremely important at this time to talk about MEMRI TV

MEMRI aims to expose Arabic-language media to Western audiences, but has faced ongoing accusations of selectively distorting its translations to portray Muslims/Arabs negatively.

You have ABSOULTELY seen memes and screenshots from this "source" and its VERY prevailant in our responses and manner of reply. They make for the funny reaction. But remember that MEMRI TV is:

1: MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute) is a non-profit think tank founded in 1998 that monitors, translates, and analyzes media from Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Pashto, and Turkish sources.

2: It was co-founded by former Israeli military intelligence officer Yigal Carmon and Israeli-American political scientist Meyrav Wurmser.

3: MEMRI publishes translations and reports which it distributes to lawmakers, media, and others. It aims to bridge the language gap between the Middle East and the West.

4: Critics argue MEMRI selectively chooses extreme/objectionable articles to portray the Arab/Muslim world negatively, while ignoring moderate views in the same media. Supporters say it reveals hate speech that should be exposed.

5: MEMRI's main projects focus on jihad/terrorism, U.S.-Middle East relations, reform in the Arab world, inter-Arab relations, and anti-Semitism. It also monitors TV and social media.

6: MEMRI is funded by around 250 private donors and foundations. It has received praise from some commentators for increasing understanding, and criticism from others for bias.

7: Translation accuracy is debated - some examples indicate possible bias, others show high quality work. MEMRI insists its translations reflect real discourse in the region.

THIS SUMMARY WAS DONE WITH AI I DONT HAVE TIME TO TYPE SHIT

Look how they phrase this headline. They phrse the language to make the islamic world look barbaric and as if they disregard life.

If we're going to talk about Palestininan liberation and their freedom, we NEED to address our use of these images

I will not tag this, I dont want the flak

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officiallordvetinari · 8 months

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Below are 10 (more) articles randomly chosen from Wikipedia's featured articles list. Links and summaries are below the cut.

Warkworth Castle is a ruined medieval castle in Warkworth in the English county of Northumberland.

Banksia coccinea, commonly known as the scarlet banksia, waratah banksia or Albany banksia, is an erect shrub or small tree in the family Proteaceae.

The bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) is a bird of prey found in North America.

Nine cities submitting bids to host the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2012 Summer Paralympics were recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) is an extinct species of mammoth that inhabited the Americas as far north as the Northern United States and as far south as Costa Rica during the Pleistocene epoch.

Hyderabad (/ˈhaɪdərəbæd/ HY-dər-ə-bad; Telugu: [ˈɦaɪ̯daraːbaːd], Urdu: [ˈɦɛːdəɾaːbaːd]) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana.

The 2003 SummerSlam was the 16th annual SummerSlam professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

Georges Bizet (né Alexandre César Léopold Bizet; 25 October 1838 – 3 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic era.

Michael Gomez (born Michael Armstrong; 21 June 1977) is a former professional boxer who competed from 1995 to 2009.

M-553 is a north–south state trunkline highway in the Upper Peninsula (UP) of the US state of Michigan.

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evegwood · 8 months

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NOOOO i am too late to the party, can I still submit my ask? If the inhibit cast could speak any other language other than English, which one would it be?

Haha don't worry, I'm always happy to answer questions and this is a fun one!

A few of the characters already know another language - David knows British Sign Language fairly fluently, though he definitely has a hearing "accent" (less fluid signing, tendency to use English constructions rather than the way a fluent BSL user would phrase something, difficulty reading fast fingerspelling). He also understands Urdu because his mum is Pakistani but isn't as good at speaking it.

Like a lot of kids in the UK, the Earl kids were taught some German but wouldn't be able to say anything other than like "Ich lebe im Vereinigten Königreich" and "Scheisse" because language education is here is terrible and even worse at Earl.

Masha speaks textbook French because she's a swot and would learn Russian if she could because her adoptive family is originally from Russia.

Nate is Chinese-American (born in San Francisco, moved to the UK when he was really young) so he'd be like oh yeah one day I'm totally going to learn Chinese. And you'd ask if he would learn Cantonese or Mandarin and he'd be like what.

Paulina's family is Polish but she wouldn't be much interested in learning it. She doesn't plan on going to Poland any time soon. Same with Julia, she'd have no interest in learning Scottish Gaelic, it's too hard and stumbling through German articles has put her off language-learning.

If Vic had to learn a language he'd probably prefer to study BSL properly - his signing is pretty poor comparatively and he wouldn't be able to hold any sort of conversation with another BSL user beyond the basics, it's like a cobbled-together sign language based on library books and what David has taught him. Otherwise he'd be much more interested in learning the history of another country than its language.

#asks #anonymous

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unionize-aromantically · 25 days

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You’re really cool! /gen

What languages are you learning?

Which ones do you want to become fluent in, in the future?

Where do you learn them?

What’s your favorite language?

Would you advise someone to learn Norwegian?

Do you have a language you’d never want to learn?

What’s the hardest thing for you when learning a new language?

How’s your day going?

ok first thank you for this epic ask. my answer is long so it's under the cut.

I'm currently primarily learning Russian. I am sorta learning Swahili, but I haven't come any far yet.

I'm also continuing to learn french, but I'm already pretty good at french so it's pretty much just reading stuff in french.

I'm sorta learning northern Sami or Sami languages (multiple), but I haven't gotten far.

I'm not sure which languages I want to be fluent in. I guess french, I'm definitely not on a C1 level yet but I know a lot so it's probably the easiest. But I just want to take things as they come a bit. Sami languages (probably northern Sami has most materials) are a candidate, because decolonization and stuff, plus it's a new language family to me which interests me a lot. Though I'll likely try one I know people who speak.

but for learning in general I am considering/currently learning:

- Arabic (maybe Egyptian)

- Swahili

- French

- Russian

- Chinese (probably mandarin)

- Urdu

- Sámi language (unsure which)

- Norwegian sign language

- international sign language

- Usamerican sign language (ASL)

- Thai

And of course I'm probably gonna update this list. (metaphorically speaking, not physically this list in this post)

Where I learn:

So for french I learned primarily in a classroom setting, but honestly that has left me with very weak like audio processing for french.

For Russian I've been using Duolingo which is pretty good, though as people talk about I don't understand the grammar so if I want to use it formally I'm probably gonna diversify. (not sure what I'll do yet)

For Swahili I'm using language transfer. But I struggle to motivate myself to do language transfer lessons. They're primarily audio based and I'm genuinely addicted to music so I'm not always in the mood.

I've also used Polygloss, which is an image description game type thing where you get feedback on your language skills from other users. I would probably recommend this one if it sounds at all interesting to you. This has many languages btw, even toki Pona.

I've used drops but that app fuckings sucks ass. It's difficult to remember stuff in complete isolation. It's like the opposite of reading wikipedia in the target language.

For Thai I've used "Thai drill", which seems pretty good, I haven't gotten far with thai though because I've focused on other languages.

I've used lingodeer the short time I learned japanese, I've heard it's supposed to be really good for that.

I also like using texts, for Russian I've used a lot of wikipedia, trying to just read articles in Russian and see what I understand. For french I've used magazines and lemonde. For Sami I've used just the regular news.

I've tried chatting apps for language learning but I haven't really stuck to them too much so idk if that's for me. I think people like those though.

I've tried YouTube for Norwegian sign language and I find myself less likely to use youtube for language learning, but it definitely helps with getting access to resources when there's little.

Also miscellaneous websites. For Norwegian sign language, Russian and French I've used websites and it's helped at least a bit.

Translation services are essential! Like yeah don't just put everything through translation, but if you need a specific word or want to check your grammar it can be very helpful. I use it a lot in french.

On whether to learn Norwegian that depends what you value.

Some options are: novelty (different language family? unfamiliar writing system?), easiness (similar? are there apps? are there complex conjugations?), practical use (can you watch tv in the language? do you know anyone who speaks it?), different culture (will it give you access to a world radically different to your own?), decolonization (is it a colonized language?)

But personally I'm inclined to say yeah please learn my language. I can recommend resources and help teach you if you chose it, so the easiness is high (plus it's on Duolingo). the practical use, though lowered by the fact that most Norwegians speak english, is decent because it's easy to access free books online in Norwegian, plus news (that may be different like with Palestine - the free national news report does not have to be approved by isnotreal). And in general Norway values freedom of speech. The easiness is raised by you speaking English, and Norwegian also doesn't gender anything depending on subject's gender (unlike french), only grammatical gender, and you can choose between 2 & 3 genders. For novelty it's probably not that interesting though. For decolonization it's a colonizer language, Norway colonized a part of Sápmi and forced them to speak like us, no one colonized Norway. wait actually there might be more than Sápmi? idk I found this about Denmark-Norway, it might be wrong to pin it on just the Danes even though they had the upper hand historically, idk (there was centralized royal rule based in Copenhagen in Denmark). But yeah that last part idk if it really matters, it's not immoral to learn a "evil" language (of any kind), it's more that I consider it extra moral to learn a colonized language. (I wouldn't necessarily consider Norwegian evil but you get what I'm getting at).

For languages I wouldn't learn, honestly there's not many. I'm skeptical towards learning more languages like french because it's hyper gendered & usually non-binary excluding, but I think Spanish for example is one of them and it's so widely spoken it's kinda worth it.

The most difficult thing for me when learning a language, I guess staying consistent. I only have like one perfect month on Duolingo, and for other languages like Norwegian sign language I've not been consistent at all, not even reaching a rate of one lesson a month.

My day is going pretty well, especially after answering this ask :)

#ink.post #asks #anon asks #language asks #language learning #question asks #ink.asks

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urduquotesblog · 1 month

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True Relationship Quotes In Urdu

Uncover the heartwarming world of true relationship quotes in urdu. The urdu language is filled with tender expressions that speak volumes about love, bonds, and connections. Examine the profound depth of emotions and let these quotes connect to your own journey of relationships. Begin searching for genuine inspiration.

”Maa ki aik aadat khuda se bohut milti hai Donon hi maaf kar dete hain” ماں کی ایک عادت خدا سے بہت ملتی ہے دونوں ہی معاف کر دیتے ہیں by Jamil Nihal

"Har mushkil aasan hoti hai Zinda jab tak maa hoti hai" ہر مشکل آسان ہوتی ہے زندہ جب تک ماں ہوتی ہے by Jamil Nihal

"Char din bhi koi nahin nibha sakta Jo kirdar baap sari zindagi nibhata hai" چار دن بھی کوئی نہیں نبھا سکتا جو کردار باپ ساری زندگی نبھاتا ہے by Jamil Nihal

"Baap ki daulat nahin Saya hi kafi hai" باپ کی دولت نہیں سایہ ہی کافی ہے by Jamil Nihal

"Mard ki taraf se aurat ko diya jaane wala Sabse khubsurat tohfa izzat hai" مرد کی طرف سے عورت کو دیا جانے والا سب سے خوبصورت تحفہ عزت ہے by Jamil Nihal

"Walden ke to sab hi ladle hote hain Humsafar ka ladla hona kismat ki baat hai" والدین کے تو سب ہی لاڈلے ہوتے ہیں ہمسفر کا لاڈلا ہونا قسمت کی بات ہے by Jamil Nihal

"Mohammed (PBUH) Quotes: Betiyan ghar ka nur hoti hai inhen kabhi dukh mat do" حضرت محمدﷺ نے فرمایا: بیٹیاں گھر کا نور ہوتی ہیں انہیں کبھی دکھ مت دو by Jamil Nihal

"Beti vo phool hai Jo har bag mein nahin khilta" بیٹی وہ پھول ہے جو ہر باغ میں نہیں کھلتا by Jamil Nihal

"Maan anmol hai iska Koi mol nahin" ماں انمول ہے اسکا کوئی مول نہیں by Jamil Nihal

"Duniya mein sabse ziyada daulat Uske pass hai jiski maan zinda hai" دنیا میں سب سے زیادہ دولت اس کے پاس ہے جس کی ماں زندہ ہے by Jamil Nihal

"Mohabbat to bahut chota sa lafaz hai Mere bhaiyon mein to meri jaan basti hai" محبت تو بہت چھوٹا سا لفظ ہے میرے بھائیوں میں تو میری جان بستی ہے by Jamil Nihal

"Woh lamhey bahut khas hote hain Jin men ham bahan bhai sath hote hain" وہ لمحے بہت خاص ہوتے ہیں جن میں ہم بہن بھائی ساتھ ہوتے ہیں by Jamil Nihal

"Maan zindagi ke tarik rahon Mein roshani ka minar hai" ماں زندگی کے تاریک راہوں میں روشنی کا مینار ہے۔۔۔۔ by Jamil Nihal

"Yah kamyabiyan, Izzat yah naam tumse hai Aiy meri maan mera sara mukam tumse hai" یہ کامیابیاں، عزت یہ نام تم سے ہے اے میری ماں میرا سارا مقام تم سے ہے by Jamil Nihal Read the full article

#truerelationshipquotesinurdu #relationship #quotes

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