Social Media IO Roundup
This project is focused on identifying possible State-Sponsored Information Operations (IO) across various Social Media platforms.
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”
- Edward Bernays
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Review:
Social Media IO: Actor(s), Examples, Techniques PART 2
Wrap up:
For this release we will cover the following:
Black Hat (PR/SEO)
What is digital marketing (Segmentation, targeting, positioning)? How is this related to IO?
What is a Chatbot?
What is find, fix, finish? How is this related to IO?
What is a Platform (Google/Facebook/Instagram ADs)?
What is geofencing?
What is engagement?
What is micro-targeting?
What is Branding?
What is spam?
What is fake news?
Social Media IO: Actor(s), Examples, Techniques PART 1
Wrap up:
For this release we will cover the following:
What is an Actor?
What is a CVE and why is it important?
What is Phishing?
What is a Tribe (marketing to a people)?
What is a MEME (low cost with high return)
What is Memetic warfare?
What is a Troll factory?
Influence operations (Expanded).
Examples of influence operations (China, Russia, Iranian).
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Watch First:
Who is Edward Bernays? Where did he come from? Why should I listen?
Dubbed “The father of pubic relations” Sigmund Freud's nephew and WWI veteran Bernays was drawn to learning about the irrational forces that drive human behavior. Edward wanted to bottle up the magic and sell products. In his 1928 book, "Propaganda," Bernays developed an idea that utilizing the group mind, it would be possible to manipulate people's behavior without them likely realizing it.
The banana wars:
“Words are powerful. Spoken, written, or simply the words we use in our own minds — all words have potential power.
-- Unknown
Bernays crafted a propaganda war while convincing the American public that Juan Jacobo Árbenz was a dangerous communist who could not remain in power. With McCarthy-era hysteria in full swing, President Eisenhower directed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to remove the elected Arbenz in a 1954 covert operation. The CIA established the "Liberation Army" under the command of an exiled Guatemalan army officer, and used them in concert with a diplomatic, economic, and propaganda campaign.
MEAT & POTATOES:
Social Media IO: A look at Edward Bernays The father of Public Relations
Goal:
For this release we will cover the following:
What are Public Relations?
What is Strategic Communication?
What is Propaganda?
Who is Sigmund Freud?
What is herd instinct?
What is crowd psychology?
What is psychological warfare?
What is mass psychology?
Terms, Video reference of definitions and their function:
Definitions are necessary - yet we need to understand how it/things work.
Public Relations: Public relations is the practice of deliberately managing the release and spread of information between an individual or an organization and the public in order to affect public perception. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_relations]
Strategic Communications: Strategic communication is an umbrella term to describe the activities of disciplines including public relations, management communication, and advertising. However, strategic communication is also increasingly recognized as a developing subfield within the communication. As such, it explores the capacity of all organizations—not only corporations but also not-for-profit organizations (including advocacy and activist groups) and government—for engaging in purposeful communication. [https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756841/obo-9780199756841-0007.xml]
Propaganda: Propaganda is a message which attempts to alter public perceptions and/or induce action. It serves some specific agenda. Propaganda can appear in any form or medium and may or may not be obvious as propaganda. Its actual source may not be obvious. Not all propaganda is evil - some serve reasonable purposes, like promoting action on public health issues. [https://www.physics.smu.edu/pseudo/Propaganda/]
Sigmund Freud: Sigmund Freud (1856 to 1939) was the founding father of psychoanalysis, a method for treating mental illness, and also a theory that explains human behavior. Freud believed that events in our childhood have a great influence on our adult lives, shaping our personality. For example, anxiety originating from traumatic experiences in a person's past is hidden from consciousness and may cause problems during adulthood (in the form of neuroses).[https://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html]
Herd instinct: describes how people can be influenced by their peers to adopt certain behaviors on a largely emotional, rather than rational, basis. When individuals are affected by mob mentality, they may make different decisions than they would have individually. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_mentality]
Crowd Psychology: An idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture. [https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/meme]
Psychological warfare: Memetic warfare has been seriously studied as an important concept with respect to information warfare by NATO's Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence. Jeff Giesea, writing in NATO's Stratcom COE Defense Strategic Communications journal, defines memetic warfare as "competition over the narrative, ideas, and social control in a social-media battlefield. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memetic_warfare]
Mass psychology: Mass psychology, also termed mob psychology or crowd psychology, studies how your behavior is influenced by large groups of people. For example, a mass psychologist is conducting social experiments regarding how individuals are affected by flash mobs. battlefield. [https://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Mass+Psychology#:~:text=Mass%20psychology%2C%20also%20termed%20as,by%20flash%20mobs%20(hyperlink).]
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The father of Public relations (Notable accomplishments):
“Just because something isn't a lie does not mean that it isn't deceptive. A liar knows that he is a liar, but one who speaks mere portions of truth in order to deceive is a craftsman of destruction.”
― Criss Jami
Torches of Freedom effort
Watch first:
Torches of Freedom effort:
A commonly noted Bernays campaign occurred while employed for an American Tobacco Company during the 1920s. The habit of smoking caught on with American women following World War I, yet the activity for women was mainly negative in public opinion very few found it acceptable for women to smoke.
Bernays began by spreading the idea, through various means, that smoking was an alternative to candy and desserts and that tobacco helped people lose weight. He followed that up in 1929 with something more audacious: spreading the idea that cigarettes meant freedom. Bernays had gotten the idea from consulting with a New York psychoanalyst who happened to be a disciple of his uncle, Dr. Freud.
Bernays was informed that women of the late 1920s were seeking freedom, and smoking represented that freedom. To find a way to convey that concept to the public, Bernays hit upon the stunt of having young women smoke cigarettes while strolling in the annual Easter Sunday parade on Fifth Avenue in New York City.
A theory behind Cigarettes sales at the time:
Ivory soap campaign
Watch first:
Ivory soap campaign:
In 1923 Bernays was hired to promote Ivory soap. He did a study that found that people were most likely to choose a white unscented soap, of which Ivory was the only product on the market. He promoted Ivory in a number of ways, including holding a soap yacht race in Central Park and encouraging citizens to do their civic duty by washing their town statues and municipal buildings with Ivory soap. He then turned to children and decided he needed to make kids, the enemy of soap, love Ivory soap. He offered the National Soap Sculpture Competition in White Soap to schools, with the winning sculptures were sent to exhibitions in New York and to museums around the country. The contest became so popular it entered the curriculum in many school districts and was held for a quarter of a century. Bernays did all of this while working for Proctor & Gamble.
How Bacon and Eggs became the American breakfast staple
Watch first:
Beech-Nut Packing Company campaign:
In the 1920s, Bernays was approached by the Beech-Nut Packing Company – producers of everything from pork products to the nostalgic Beech-Nut bubble gum. Beech-Nut wanted to increase consumer demand for bacon. Bernays turned to his agency’s internal doctor and asked him whether a heavier breakfast might be more beneficial for the American public. Knowing which way his bread was buttered, the doctor confirmed Bernays's suspicion and wrote to five thousand of his doctor’s friends asking them to confirm it as well. This ‘study’ of doctors encouraging the American public to eat a heavier breakfast – namely ‘Bacon and Eggs’ – was published in major newspapers and magazines of the time to great success. Beech-Nut’s profits rose sharply thanks to Bernays and his team of medical professionals.
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Read of the Week:
Propaganda (1928)
Abstract:
A seminal and controversial figure in the history of political thought and public relations, Edward Bernays (1891–1995), pioneered the scientific technique of shaping and manipulating public opinion, which he famously dubbed “engineering of consent.” During World War I, he was an integral part of the U.S. Committee on Public Information (CPI), a powerful propaganda apparatus that was mobilized to package, advertise and sell the war to the American people as one that would “Make the World Safe for Democracy.” The CPI would become the blueprint upon which marketing strategies for future wars would be based upon. Bernays applied the techniques he had learned in the CPI and, incorporating some of the ideas of Walter Lipmann, became an outspoken proponent of propaganda as a tool for democratic and corporate manipulation of the population. His 1928 bombshell Propaganda lays out his eerily prescient vision for using propaganda to regiment the collective mind in a variety of areas, including government, politics, art, science, and education. To read this book today is to frightfully comprehend what our contemporary institutions of government and business have become in regards to organized manipulation of the masses [http://www.self.gutenberg.org/eBooks/WPLBN0100002651-Propaganda-by-Bernays-Edward.aspx?]
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Feedback:
Social Media IO Roundup is an effort charged with educating and bringing attention to the murky world of cyber information operations. Highlighting tradecraft, concerns trends, techniques, and raising questions to a sector many don’t see. I’m not all-knowing and want to improve the content, so I need you the readers to interact.
Drop a line:
Email: dominanceinformation@gmail.com Instagram @informationdominance
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Closing:
Now that you have read through the above think about what are known truths for you. Have you been influenced? Standby for more at a later date.
-Bob aka INFODOM