(17 Mar 2011)

The discovery that the US military is developing false online personalities – known to users of social media as „sock puppets“ – could also encourage other governments, private companies and non-government organisations to do the same.

The Centcom contract stipulates that each fake online persona must have a convincing background, history and supporting details, and that up to 50 US-based controllers should be able to operate false identities from their workstations „without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries“.