The British Army and Misinformation: The 77th Brigade

June 27, 2021 ~ beetleypete ~ 33 Comments

There are lots of conspiracy theories surrounding the pandemic, the lockdowns, and the vaccination programmes. Some are more plausible than others, and a few are actually interesting enough to possibly be true.

One of the latter concerns the activities of the British Army’s Information and Technology unit, the 77th Brigade. Did any of us know that our own army had a skilled brigade that is targeting social media? Until recently, I had no idea. Add the resources of the government listening centre, GCHQ, and you have a powerful propaganda unit that can be deployed by the government to spread rumours, counter other rumours, and even manipulate message feeds, emails, and online videos.

This is from the Army website.

WHO WE ARE
77th Brigade is an agent of change; through targeted Information Activity and Outreach we contribute to the success of military objectives in support of Commanders, whilst reducing the cost in casualties and resources.
Our outputs are a fundamental part of the Army’s Integrated Action model.
Aside from the delivery and support of Information Activities and Outreach we have a role in planning and advising across the Army and wider Defence.

SOME OF THE WAYS WE HELP
Conducting timely and appropriate audience, actor and adversary analysis
Planning and integrating information activity and outreach (IA&O)
Supporting and delivering IA&O within pre-designated boundaries
Supporting counter-adversarial information activity
Support to partners across Government upstream and post-conflict institutional development/reform
Collecting, creating and disseminating digital and wider media content in support of designated tasks
Monitoring and evaluating the information environment within boundaries or operational area

WHAT WE DO
Audience, Actor and Adversary Analysis
Information Activity and Outreach
Counter-adversarial Information Activity
Support to Partners Across Government
Collecting media content
Disseminating Media
Monitoring the information environment
Evaluating the information environment
Advising and training on Human Security and providing support to current operations.

This is online for anyone to read, so they are not a secret unit. If anything, they seem to be very proud of their role.

I also found this article, by a journalist who visited the unit’s headquarters. It is long, but eye-opening.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/inside-the-77th-brigade-britains-information-warfare-military

Well, I have just written about them online, so let’s see if they alter my social media profile, or ‘cyber-attack’ me in other ways.

It was nice knowing you… 🙂

A Good Catch Up

February 18, 2021 ~ beetleypete ~ 75 Comments

I had an unexpected phone call from one of my oldest friends today. Someone I have known for almost 58 years, since we started senior school on the same day, in 1963.

Since moving to Norfolk, I haven’t seen him, and we have only spoken a few times. So a very long chat of three hours or more was needed for a good catch up.

Much of the conversation was about our teenage years in South London. The people we knew, the places we frequented, and the pubs we used to drink in. Family members on each sde that we were familiar with, a few notorious characters we used to come into contact with. Many are long since dead of course, and others have moved away and dropped off of our radar.

Family chat featured too. Who is doing what, who is living where, and memories of those family members now departed. He keeps himself busy with an exercise regime. Running around the quiet lanes in the East Sussex hamlet where he lives, or cycling long distances around the South Downs. He didn’t want to get a dog, as he was reluctant to be upset when it died. He has a long history or riding horses, and being involved with Racing Stables, so that is still part of his life too.

He was interested in what I fill my time with, and surprised that I spend so much time every day blogging. He remarked on that. “You do it every day then?” No fan of social media, he doesn’t have any accounts on those platforms, and their undue influence on modern life makes him angry. But he got back to blogging, something he has little knowledge of. “What do you write about every day then?”

I told him the gist of the blog. Ollie, dog-walking, fictional stories and serials, and occasional serious pieces about things on my mind. It felt strange to explain it like this, and it made me think about the fact that so many people have never even read a blog, let alone written one.

We live in our blogging community, where this activity seems not only desirable, but completly normal. We know that there are tens of millions of bloggers all around the world, churning out stuff on a daily or weekly basis. I realised after chatting to my friend today that the blogging world is a complete mystery to equally as many people. I had forgotten that, after eight years of blogging almost every single day.

Lesson learned.

But that didn’t stop me emailing him links to some of my fiction stories. 🙂