# Social Media and the Federal Goverment Fakes



## bikerboy (Sep 16, 2007)

Interesting articles on "persona management software". Where the goverment combines "data mining" and fake identities to sway opinion. Who knows if any of us are real?

Highlights and links.

The Daily Kos

And all of this is for the purposes of infiltration, data mining, and (here's the one that really worries me) ganging up on bloggers, commenters and otherwise "real" people to smear enemies and distort the truth.
This is an excerpt from one of the Word Documents, which was sent as an attachment by Aaron Barr, CEO of HB Gary's Federal subsidiary, to several of his colleagues to present to clients:

Sean Kerrigan


Included in HBGary's leaked emails was a government proposal for the government contract. The document describes how they would 'friend' real people on Facebook as a way to convey government messages. The proposal reads:

Information Week

*Air Force Seeks Fake Online Social Media Identities *

*The military has issued a request for bids on software to let it spread messages and make online friends using non-existent identities on social media sites. *


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## RCP (Apr 18, 2007)

Pretty scary stuff! I have read of this, and groups other than government doing it. 
For some, spotting a "faker" is fairly easy, look how quickly we spot them here, but to see software being developed means that will be more difficult.


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## bikerboy (Sep 16, 2007)

What gets me is the possible use mining of data to gather a list your friends than opening an account in their name if the don't already have one.

It's goverment propaganda and half truths. Just gotta wonder why and how they sanction something like that.


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## Bender (Aug 10, 2008)

BB said:


> Just gotta wonder why and how they sanction something like that.


Thats easy. Look what happened in Egypt. Social media toppled a government. Can't allow that to happen in the USA:no:

Good Reading. Thanks


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## straight_lines (Oct 17, 2007)

bikerboy said:


> It's goverment propaganda and half truths. Just gotta wonder why and how they sanction something like that.


 Patriot Act most likely.


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## Bender (Aug 10, 2008)

> How many times have you seen a diary get posted that reports some revelatory yet unfavorable tidbit about someone only to see a swarm of commenters arrive who hijack the thread, distract with a bunch of irrelevant nonsense, start throwing unsubstantiated accusations and ad hominem attacks to where before you know it, everyone's pretty much forgotten what the diary said in the first place.


:whistling2:


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