Britain’s ‘Twitter troops’ have ways of making you think…
Amid disclosures of mass surveillance and government hacking, the Snowden revelations have exposed a hitherto unknown branch of the British intelligence services dedicated to influencing human behaviour with psychological science. Reporting has focused on the political implications of the revelation, but the leaked files also give a fascinating insight into new methods deployed by the secret services. The Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group, or JTRIG, specialises in attempting to "discredit, disrupt, delay, deny, degrade, and deter" opponents and has been branded by the press as GCHQ's "deception unit".
Controversially, not only were terrorists and hostile states listed as opponents who could pose a national security threat, but also domestic criminals and activist groups. JTRIG's work seems primarily to involve electronic communications, and can include practical measures such as hacking computers and flooding phones with junk messages. But it also attempts to influence people socially through deception, infiltration, mass persuasion and, occasionally, it seems, sexual "honeypot" stings. The Human Science Operations Cell appears to be a specialist section of JTRIG dedicated to providing psychological support for this work.
Continue reading...