Small Wars Journal

Wading into the Media War

Wading into the Media War

Chris Townsend

The Department of Defense was recently handed a decidedly non-kinetic mission in the ongoing war against extremists. The 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (S-1356) tasks the DoD with the following:

The Secretary of Defense should develop creative and agile concepts, technologies, and strategies across all available media to most effectively reach target audiences, to counter and degrade the ability of adversaries and potential adversaries to persuade, inspire, and recruit inside areas of hostilities or in other areas in direct support of the objectives of commanders.

The directive limits the battlefield to “all available media,” restricting the battle space to the messaging and not necessarily the means of communicating.  How then does the DoD conduct a media war, especially when considering the number of other players already in the counter-messaging game like the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC), which already boasts DoD involvement? This limitation would seem to preclude options like the Counter-electronics High-powered microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP) which purports to function like a smarter version of the old CBU-94 Blackout Bomb. Instead of cutting the power to entire cities like its predecessor, CHAMP can “shut down electronics in a single building.”

The DoD could contribute to the degradation of information on these networks. Kalev Leetaru offered some potential projects in his article “A Few Good Twitter Trolls.” Among his recommendations is the registering of hundreds of accounts with similar names to Islamic State (IS) accounts in an effort to confuse those seeking the messages. Another possibility suggested by Leetaru is the creation of YouTube videos with thumbnails and titling that suggest IS affiliation, but really contain counter-messaging or blank space to create what David Martin dubbed a “Wilderness of Mirrors” where one is hard-pressed to identify what is real or fake. His idea is not without merit and could be a DoD task to crowd the media battlespace with so much chaff that true content is harder to locate, but first a decision must be made whether to disrupt or exploit the existing networks. There could be intelligence value in the maintenance and monitoring of these networks. Word Cloud tools that use text to create trend maps could be programmed to harvest from known IS accounts and their re-tweeters to create a graphical representation of the current message allowing for more targeted counter-messaging efforts. Such a tool might even have predictive value as certain words or phrases may trend prior to an attack. A final potential quasi-kinetic option for degradation is the development of hacking squads that can identify routers and computers that propagate IS messaging and destroy them remotely.

The more difficult task for the DoD to contribute to is the countering of actual narratives offered by the IS. I would be the first in line to volunteer for a PhD in Islamic Studies to better understand the source of messaging and develop challenges to IS interpretations, but there is a readily available cadre of civilian experts that could be hired by the DoD. Experts in Islamic theology could point out contradictions between IS behavior and Islamic scriptures, or challenge the interpretations of scriptures that the IS uses to justify its actions. Another potential source of counter-messaging is the victims of IS atrocities. Refugee camps in the Middle East are full of those who can speak directly to information seekers. Internet cafes or wifi services provided in these camps could give them an avenue to add their voice to the fight. DoD has tools for providing communications networks in remote locations that could facilitate such efforts with the side benefits of providing avenues for education and communication for the displaced.




Outlaw 09

Mon, 12/14/2015 - 8:40am

In reply to by Outlaw 09

Perfect example of what I am saying about the lack of MSM...........

Result of a search on my Main Stream Media Twitter Feed for critical news on Syria yesterday......concerning the Assad AF dropping newly received Russian cluster sub munitions on a primary school killing 60 children.....

Silence on this particular civilian massacre BUT a few articles on just how can DoD do what the entire western MSM is failing to do......deliver critical, timely and truthful reporting on say Syria or eastern Ukraine....never will occur as their corporate sponsors have a thing or two to say or not say.

Genocide has been occurring in Syria since 2011 and yet we hear, read and or see nothing about this in MSM but let 130 be killed in Paris and the airwaves are full of it---130 are almost killed now almost daily by Russian and Assad air strikes using cluster munitions, thermobaric weapons, WP and yet not a single report...

Even the use of Assad of a chemical strike on civilians was broken by social media so exactly just how is DoD suppose to push back on IS and or even Russian info warfare??

OR even worse DoD does nothing but talk about IS and forgets this is also work social media in an info warfare environment---the truth is the single driver whether it hurts sometimes or not--can DoD be totally color blind....when the money flows from Congress ??

Reuters Top News ✔ @Reuters
Torture by Iraqi militias: the report Washington did not want you to see via @specialreports

Social media at least has been attempting to run the middle and criticize both sides if necessary.

Outlaw 09

Mon, 12/14/2015 - 8:05am

Everyone knows my positions on the Russian and IS info is the single key to the success and or failure of non linear warfare thus must be addressed as if one "is seriously at war".....not just 'playing at war" or just going through the "motions of war".

The GDR MfS Stasi use to have a saying for their spies....."they were fighting a war on the invisible front"....and that has not changed whether it is Russia and or the IS or Syrian info warriors......

Right now that fight is in social media and the three so called US "social media giants" FB, Twitter and YouTube leave a lot to be desired in their "so called efforts".

If we track their efforts since eastern Ukraine these "three so called giants" have often been working more for the Russian info warriors THAN against them AND the same goes for IS.

These three are quick to respond to Russian, Syrian and Is troll complaints against those accounts that are trying to push back on the Russian, Syrian and Is trolls BUT are extremely slow in responding to social media complaints against the info warriors accounts on those three platforms---maybe it has to do with oligarch funding.

DoD tried the concept of info warfare when they hired a "defense contracting media company in 2005" to shape the general MSM efforts to generate support for the US and Iraqi positions---largely failed.

THUS IMHO just about anything DoD approaches in such a fashion is doomed to failure---it is the social media side that has the flexibility and staying power but what it does not have is the tie in by the MSM.

Social media has the strength and staying power to push back using key narratives and using the simple truth but that costs money, time and efforts--something DoD has never been good out outside of money.

Can never envision the DoD creating a single private troll company and hiring 400 trolls to carry the daily 24X7X365 social media fight as say the Russians do and or the hundreds of IS volunteers that do it for IS.

The 'Wilderness of Mirrors' concept is very useful since it both dilutes the IS messaging and keeps the intelligence collection/analysis capability presented by the actual IS posts. If you combine that with counter messaging from refugees (using the mirror site accounts) you get a clear counter message while protecting the refugees from physical reprisals.