US Declares Flame War on Terrorists

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**Easy E**

From Slate.com

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/07/19/viral_peace_plans_to_combat_terrorism_by_trolling_jihadi_forums_.html

New US program hires people to go onto Jihadi forums and troll them in order to disrupt their recruitment and demoralize them.

The U.S. State Department wants to deploy a cruel new weapon in the War on Terror: the Internet troll.

Wired’s Spencer Ackerman reports that a project called Viral Peace will use harassment and irrelevant comments—the troll’s favorite tools—to disrupt jihadi forums and online communities. Eventually, the hope is, this tactic will hurt Islamist extremists’ virtual recruiting. “Think of it as strategic trolling, in pursuit of geopolitical pwnage,” writes Ackerman.

Viral Peace creator Shahed Amanullah told Wired he hopes to utilize “logic, humor, satire, [and] religious arguments, not just to confront [extremists], but to undermine and demoralize them.” This past spring, Muslims in Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, and elsewhere started Trolling 101 training, under the premise that Muslims will know best how to agitate the extremist communities. After all, trolling is a subtle art.

But could the same tactics used by belligerent adolescents on Xbox Live wreck enough virtual havoc as to combat the spread of terrorism? Almost anyone who has spent time in commenting forums knows that the No. 1 rule is: “Don’t feed the trolls.” It stands to reason that even a jidhai knows to simply ignore a troll and move on, rather than engaging.

One trolling expert—yes, there is such a thing—is skeptical of the project. "The U.S. government is not going to get anywhere by flame trolling Jihads,” professor Jonathan Bishop told me in an email. Bishop is the co-founder of Crocels Trolling Academy, a nonprofit research initiative at Wales’ Swansea University that studies the psychology and effects of trolling. Bishop believes that this novel strategy may end up backfiring: "The U.S. should expect Jihads to 'fight flame with flame' or even worse 'fight flame with firearms,’ “ he said.

Wired notes that the program has yet to identify which online communities to target, or how to actually troll them. Amanullah believes it is best to leave these decisions up to their cyberbullies-in-training, who will know their region’s internet behavior better than any State Department official.

Additionally, the project only has “mere thousands of dollars in annual seed money so far.”

That said, how much money does it really take to be annoying on the Internet?

**LordofHats**

My god...

The next war will be fought with sticks and stones...

Cause the ability to make anything more mechanically complex is going to be forgotten by the time everyone calms down.

**Frazzled**

Finally the moment I was born for! No ambiguities, no cobwebs. I am like the arrow loosed from the bow....

"Er... President Obama....there's this guy on the line, something about trolling the enemies of freedom. He has references from a Mr. Dakka. He says he has some hot dogs or something too..."

**Kanluwen**

Come Frazzled!

We have important works to do!

**Squigsquasher**

Where do I sign up?

**Sturmtruppen**

YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU (to be a troll, lol)

Perhaps the US Government can also employ a certain group of people who like wearing masks to hack said websites too.

**Mannahnin**

Gorram it. If we can just teach you guys Arabic, your talents could be used to LITERALLY SAVE THE WORLD.

**RatBot**

I've actually applied to go back to school to study Arabic this fall.

....Have I found my true calling!?

**Kovnik Obama**

Frazzled wrote:Finally the moment I was born for! No ambiguities, no cobwebs. I am like the arrow loosed from the bow....

"Er... President Obama....there's this guy on the line, something about trolling the enemies of freedom. He has references from a Mr. Dakka. He says he has some hot dogs or something too..."

I feel pure elation. I haven't felt this happy since I've heard there was a chance that the U.S. would re-start issuing Letters of Marques. Now I'll be able to serve my country just as much as any jarhead who put's his life in danger on the frontlines, all from the comfort of my room!

**Jihadin**

It'll be good to troll spam the extremist website. After awhile though you might be agreeing with them....then...

**Asherian Command**

Men we go to troll!

**Jihadin**

hhmmmm any links to a good terrorist blog

**Asherian Command**

Jihadin wrote:hhmmmm any links to a good terrorist blog

I just swear Akhmad the Dead Terrorist is on board a terrorist blog. It would be hilarious if they all have tumblr.

**Kovnik Obama**

Jihadin wrote:It'll be good to troll spam the extremist website. After awhile though you might be agreeing with them....then...

Trolls trolling themselves? Hopefully their will be some level of professionalism on the part of the trolls.

**Asherian Command**

Kovnik Obama wrote:
Jihadin wrote:It'll be good to troll spam the extremist website. After awhile though you might be agreeing with them....then...

Trolls trolling themselves? Hopefully their will be some level of professionalism on the part of the trolls.

If anon gets on this. OMG the world will be peaceful. Just sayin. Not saying any ideas out there. Just throwing it out there, would be quite promotional and good for Anon to troll the Al-Queda or Jihaid websites.

**Jihadin**

Sounds like escalation is in the works

**Happygrunt**

Where do I sign?

FOR FREEDOM!

**Slarg232**

Heaven help us.....

**Kovnik Obama**

Do Zalgotext works on arabic caracters?

W-would anyone be able to tell the difference?

**hotsauceman1**

"TONIGHT WE DINE IN THE INTERNET"
Seriously i wish i was at the board meeting, just to see the faces on people.

**Jihadin**

Thats easy Hot...imagine you and a bunch of friends getting ready to pull off the best prank in the world.

**Aerethan**

I've waited my whole life for this moment. Here's hoping that Google Translate doesn't fail me.

**mattyrm**

If they have started paying people to troll then several members of dakka must be very wealthy indeed.

In fact, that must be why my old pal Shuma hasn't been around lately, Obama has paid 4.2 million dollars into his paypal account for services rendered!

**Squigsquasher**

Until we learn Arabic, let's practice our trolling skills on Stormfront! (Where da white women at?)

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Then again...That site scares me.

**Sturmtruppen**

I wonder if the job comes with a uniform.

**SilverMK2**

I've always found the best way to not get eaten by a bear is to go around poking it.

Oh wait...

**CT GAMER**

Sturmtruppen wrote:I wonder if the job comes with a uniform.

**Do_I_Not_Like_That**

Superpowers - they don't make em like they used too!

Trolling for the US Government/military... General Patton must be spinning in his grave!

**hotsauceman1**

Just how will it demoralize them exactly?

**Mannahnin**

hotsauceman1 wrote:Just how will it demoralize them exactly?

I would expect that the idea is to dissuade guys who are interested in jihad, and potentially willing to engage in acts of violence and terrorism.

To do this kind of thing, you need to work yourself up to it. You need to be committed to your cause and believe it is righteous. You have to have confidence and trust in the people you are working with, because you're engaging in a dangerous criminal activity, which can have serious risks to yourself and your family well BEFORE the point of actually committing the terrorist act. Even if you believed that becoming a suicide bomber and killing a bunch of people you hate in a public market or at an embassy was worth doing, you'd want to spend your life at that moment. You wouldn't want to die in the back room of a warehouse because some moron screwed up building your explosive vest. You wouldn't want to get arrested, lose your job (and ability to support your family), and go to prison because the people in your organization couldn't keep secrets.

The idea would be to sow the seeds of dissent internally. To convince potential jihadis that these organizations are incompetent, that they squabble amongst themselves and have no confidence in one another. This would hopefully convince potential recruits that a) the groups are not competent and worth spending your life on, and b) that they are not righteous and truly engaged in holy war, because members squabble and fight and insult one another, so hopefully disillusion the potential recruit with the cause in general.