An advertisement warning that U.S. fighter jets were ready to respond to provocations showed up on a dating app in Lebanon.
By Ellen Nakashima and Alex Horton, The Washington PostThe warning appeared online last week in Arabic beneath pictures of U.S. warplanes: “Do not take up arms against the United States or its partners,” it said, noting that America “will protect its partners in the face of threats from the Iranian regime and its proxies.”
Part of a broader campaign in what is commonly called psychological operations or military information support operations, the ad belonged to But separately, a defense official told The Washington Post “broadly speaking and as a matter of policy, the Department of Defense does conduct military information operations in support of our national security priorities. These activities must be undertaken in compliance with U.S. law and DOD policy, and we are committed to enforcing those safeguards.”
One U.S. military psyops officer scoffed at the effort. “On its face I doubt it would be very effective,” said the officer, who has worked on information operations campaigns and was not authorized to speak on the record. “What message is it that they think will resonate here?” the officer said. “This is just an in-your-face ‘don’t mess with me.’”
A more effective approach, he said, would be to seek to identify the online venues or platforms frequented by the target audience, which in this case, he said, might be “military-age males.” Those might include a closed Facebook group or Telegram account, he said. The review resulted in tighter policies regarding the use of clandestine information operations, which now require sign-off by senior Pentagon officials, the CIA and the State Department, The Post reported last year. Following that policy change, the practice of deploying sham accounts to influence overseas audiences was dramatically reduced, officials said.
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