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Air Force Wants Hundreds of Fake Online Identities

Posted by timothy on from the for-great-justice-or-a-bad-simulation dept.

bizwriter writes "Bad enough that spammers are creating fake Facebook accounts that acquire connections with unsuspecting people, then inundate them with crap. Now, the US military wants software and services to manage upwards of 500 fake online personas designed to interact with social media, presumably including such sites as Facebook and Twitter."

7 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What is the problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's worse than spam. It's coordinated government propaganda on a large scale...

  2. Re:Not fake IDs, corporate IDs by Moridin42 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Clearly, you didn't read the article. Which I know is an absurd thing to do on /.

    However.. this is not about making an account for @Area51 or a Facebook page, so you can Like the Marine Corps.

    The USAF wants a software package that will allow a user to create and manage 10 separate accounts that are geograhically and culturally correct for the area the account is supposed to be from. And they want the package to be able to handle at least 50 such users.

    They want the ultimate in internet troll technology.

    --
    I don't expect morality, equality, consistency, or justice from the law. I expect only legality.
  3. Facebook terms and conditions by Alain+Williams · · Score: 5, Informative

    Try reading the facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, By using or accessing Facebook, you agree to this Statement., section 4.1: You will not provide any false personal information on Facebook, or create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission.

    Presumably a law upholding (ahem) organisation like the US government and its agencies will want to abide with agreements that they enter in to ???

    Why can they just lie and expect to get away with it. So does that imply that I can lie on my tax form and also expect to get away with it ? I am sorry: this is not acceptable. Governments seem to regard the law and good morals as something that others need to obey, not themselves. What about the individuals who manage these fake accounts, if I ordered an employee of mine to lie they would be liable to prosecution just as I would be; why should government employees be any different ?

    1. Re:Facebook terms and conditions by IndustrialComplex · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Presumably a law upholding (ahem) organisation like the US government and its agencies will want to abide with agreements that they enter in to ???

      Why can they just lie and expect to get away with it. So does that imply that I can lie on my tax form and also expect to get away with it ? I am sorry: this is not acceptable. Governments seem to regard the law and good morals as something that others need to obey, not themselves. What about the individuals who manage these fake accounts, if I ordered an employee of mine to lie they would be liable to prosecution just as I would be; why should government employees be any different ?

      What makes you think that there has to be one and only one user agreement? It's just the basic agreement that they offer everyone, there is nothing preventing the government from going to Facebook and asking:

      "Hey, we want to use your service, but we don't care for the current contract. Here is what we would like: Strike lines 1383 and 273, add these lines...."

      For example, you come over to my house and I ask you to take off your shoes. You do so, but when you get in you see that Bob is still wearing his shoes. I respond that I let Bob wear his shoes because he asked if he could, and I said yes. You ask and I say no.

      A company doesn't have to offer one 'user agreement to bind them all' and only one. Facebook could have thousands (and probably does) for different jurisdictions, groups, etc.

      --
      Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
  4. If WE did it, we could be jailed for "hacking"... by JimMarch(equalccw) · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There's a recent trend of prosecuting people for "unauthorized use of online systems" when all they did was violate the terms of agreement of Facebook or the like. It's a real stretch to call that "hacking" but they sure tried hard in the 2008 Lori Drew case:

    http://hackaday.com/2008/05/27/violating-terms-of-service-equals-hacking/

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Lori_Drew

    They actually failed in that case:

    http://www.burneylawfirm.com/blog/tag/hacking/ ...but it was *federal* prosecutors who argued that the same thing the Air Force wants to do is in fact illegal if private citizens do it. And that wasn't the only such case - two more are discussed on this 2010 page:

    http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/6189-can-terms-of-service-turn-you-into-a-criminal

    On top of all those issues, there might be something else illegal about this, something unique to government actors. Is it constitutional for the state to lie to influence public opinion? Seriously, are we a "democracy" (yeah, I know, technically a Constitutional Republic) anymore, if public opinion can be systematically shifted via...well, bullshit? We have "freedom of information" laws - doesn't that at least imply that information coming from government sources not be a total fraud from top to bottom?

    If we let government actors spread BS at will...ummm...we have some really ghastly examples of where that leads. North Korea is probably the worst of the worst possible endgames there but there's a ton of others worldwide.

  5. i think it's a good idea by phntm · · Score: 5, Interesting

    pilots get shot down and forced to eject over hostile territories, it's a very good idea to provide them with plausible fake identities which include a rich plausible background.
    this can save lives and help our solders buy enough time to get rescued.
    also, if a spook wants to contact, let's say, the nsa or the cia from a hostile territory, i doubt he'll go over the phone.
    plus in many places encryption is a sign of wrongdoing, so using facebook and even slashdot commentary might be a good way to communicate home.
    dear mods, next time you see a troll, it's just might be a coded message from a secret agent.

    1. Re:i think it's a good idea by louic · · Score: 5, Funny

      The eagle has left the nest. Please mod my post up +5 Insightful in the interest of national security, it is a message of the utmost importance.