#133 Joe Littell on Cyber-Enabled Influence Operations

The Cognitive Crucible

The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association.

During this episode, US Army MAJ Joe Littell discusses his recent article: the Future of Cyber-Enabled Influence Operations–including emergent technologies, disinformation, and implications for democracy. Joe also presents some of the things we can do to protect ourselves.

Research Question: How did China use social media to control the COVID narrative within China? How was Chinese state media messaging oriented, both in frequency and content, prior to their invasion of COVID19 Lockdown Protests?

• Was Chinese messaging uniform, both in frequency and content, across languages and regions, or was it tailored by either?
• Did Chinese messaging change, either in frequency or content, in response to increased publicity from Western outlets?

Resources:

• Cognitive Crucible Podcast Episodes Mentioned
  • #41 Toomas Ilves on the Estonian Perspective
  • #86 Nick Starck and David Bierbrauer on Vulnerabilities in the Military Use of AI
  • #129 Eliot Jardines on Open Source Intelligence
• Littell, Joseph, "The Future of Cyber-Enabled Influence Operations: Emergent Technologies, Disinformation, and the Destruction of Democracy" (2022). ACI Books & Book Chapters.

Link to full show notes and resources

https://information-professionals.org/episode/cognitive-crucible-episode-133

Guest Bio:

Joe Littell enlisted in the Army in 2003 as an infantryman and attained the rank of Sergeant before commissioning in 2010. Upon commission, Major Littell has served as a Platoon Leader, Company Executive Officer, and Battalion Logistics Officer while assigned to the 83rd Chemical Battalion. As a 1LT, MAJ Littell applied for, assessed, and completed the Psychological Operations Qualification Course and served within the ARSOF community as a Tactical Detachment Commander and Company Commander with 9th PSYOP Battalion (Airborne). MAJ Littell currently serves as a research scientist at the Army Cyber Institute at West Point on the Information Warfare team working on computational propaganda, narrative warfare, radicalization, and microtargeting through publicly and commercially available data. He holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of South Florida and a MS in Data Science from Duke University.

About: The Information Professionals Association (IPA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain.

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