Newest U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy: Trolling

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Seriously, you can't make this stuff up. Where is a trollface picture when you need one? :D

Within the State Department, a Silicon Valley veteran has quietly launched an improbable new initiative to annoy, frustrate and humiliate denizens of online extremist forums. It’s so new that it hasn’t fully taken shape: Even its architects concede it hasn’t fleshed out an actual strategy yet, and accordingly can’t point to any results it’s yielded. Its annual budget is a rounding error. The Pentagon will spend more in Afghanistan in the time it takes you to finish reading this sentence.
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found one

trollface2.jpg


:D
 
There's no clear strategic goals yet and it's obviously taking baby steps forward, but why not? Professional trolling and forum spinning has long been the domain of corporate entities looking to protect the reputation of their products. It can't be that expensive to gather up a bunch of jerks and turn them loose on an extremist forum.
 
To anyone who majored in Arabic.....here is your dream job.
 
Professional trolls though are a mixed bag.

The Chinese PRC has something similar, where they have netizens that would go around and troll whatever that doesn't strike the fancy of the Chinese core interests (Senkaku Islands, the Taiwanese secessionist, whatever). They become a fixture that can be clumped together as we do Anonymous.

They won't sway the opinion of their targets (neither at the end give each other much a fuck/thought ideologically), but it does give a common identity of sorts for the trolls-on-a-cause to be pinned under.

I am not sure if this is gonna do anything concrete against these Islamic religious bigots. Having said that, I don't want these fundamentalists be jelly...
 
My fellow Americans, we are remaining ever vigilante in the war on terror. So without further delay I am proud to present our latest weapon on Islamic extremism:

Trollface.png
 
I don't think they have enough fema camps for all the trolls.

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Stupid idea...

Look what trolling has done to Apple vs Android.

Basically it shores up both parties and entrenches them in their beliefs even further. Thus the results will actually be the opposite of the intent.
 
I see how everyone's laughing at this, but if impressionable lurkers read these posts, trolling or not, that are a contrast to what the jihadis are posting they might question that path and not go down it. Those are the people that can be reached - the ones that are on the fence. Sure, there's no guarantee of outcome, but it's always harder to measure positive outcomes than negatives with this sort of thing because the latter produces body bags and blown up buildings. Those are already too easy to count. If this works and saves lives on all sides then why is it a bad idea? Murphy's rules of combat states "If it looks stupid but it works it isn't stupid". I feel the same way about this. This certainly costs less than bombs and bullets, both in terms of money and lives. Hatred needs to be ridiculed and mocked, and people shown how foolish it truly is to let it consume their lives.
 
Phoenix333 said:
I see how everyone's laughing at this, but if impressionable lurkers read these posts, trolling or not, that are a contrast to what the jihadis are posting they might question that path and not go down it. Those are the people that can be reached - the ones that are on the fence. Sure, there's no guarantee of outcome, but it's always harder to measure positive outcomes than negatives with this sort of thing because the latter produces body bags and blown up buildings. Those are already too easy to count. If this works and saves lives on all sides then why is it a bad idea? Murphy's rules of combat states "If it looks stupid but it works it isn't stupid". I feel the same way about this. This certainly costs less than bombs and bullets, both in terms of money and lives. Hatred needs to be ridiculed and mocked, and people shown how foolish it truly is to let it consume their lives.
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I agree with you whole heartedly. The idea of trolling terrorists to avert terrorism just seems rather ridiculous. My only worry is that if they know who is trolling them, they might go into a nerd rage and bomb us anyway. :D
 
Anyone who doubts the effectiveness of this strategy only needs to head on over to any halfway popular news site like The Economist and try to discuss anything about China there. Or better yet, don't, because you'll just get swarmed by all the Chinese trolls lurking about.

This strategy will work on a similar principle of massively increasing the signal to noise ratio until certain topics are nigh undiscussable, just for a different audience.
 
Falling Anvil said:
Anyone who doubts the effectiveness of this strategy only needs to head on over to any halfway popular news site like The Economist and try to discuss anything about China there.
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Another good example? Just declare yourself a supporter of the Tea Party, a Conservative, or a Christian on just about any online forum visited by college students. The trolls will come out of the woodwork. A closer to home example? Mention anything to do with religion or politics on these forums. Same result. Any chance of discussing the original topic dies a painful, wordy death as the vocal minority shouts everyone else down and argues incessantly. A little psychology applied to this and you push just the right buttons and message boards practically troll themselves.
 
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