[R-G] State Department's Fearsome Secret Weapon

[Anthony Fenton]

http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2008/09/state-departments-fearsome-secret.html

Monday, September 22, 2008
State Department's Fearsome Secret Weapon

State's Trolls 'Push Back' Against Anti-U.S. Bloggers

"The U.S. State Department is using a wide range of tactics to win  
over the populations of hostile countries such as Iran, according to  
James K. Glassman, Under Secretary For Public Diplomacy and Public  
Affairs. "We want to bring people together," Glassman said during a  
teleconference on Wednesday. He listed programs ranging from pro- 
democracy videos to inviting the Iranian national basketball team to  
play in Salt Lake City.
But one initiative he cited really stood out. State employs eight  
professional Internet "trolls" whose job it is to log onto blogs in  
unfriendly countries and "push back" against what Glassman says is  
misinformation about the U.S.

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[T]hey enter into digital conversations online either on other  
people’s blogs or other websites. And they identify themselves as  
working for the United States Government ... [A]t times they will ...  
say, you know, that’s not accurate, here’s the truth about U.S. policy  
and here’s a link, you can go to America.gov, you can go somewhere  
else. They do this in Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, and by the way, we hope  
soon, in Russian."