Pentagon to Use Facebook, Twitter in Cyber-Warfare

Military officials and contractors today discussed goals for using social media for military defense, including using messaging to identify, detect, recognize and even send counter-messaging that would thwart enemy plans. The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has already sent a proposal to several contractors, which promises up to $42 million in funding for any plans that will help it meet its social media goals.

DARPA said companies seeking government funding should submit proposals for plans to employ linguistic cues, determine information flow patterns, analyze topic trends and gather potential dissidents’ opinions by tracking them online, which may help the military pinpoint potential problem spots in the world.

The military has already used social networks to shape action, said DARPA. In its solicitation, DARPA said the military foiled a high-tech lynching, when authorities monitoring social media learned rumors about the location of a suspect.

Authorities monitoring the social networks detected the crisis, sent out messages that dispelled rumors and averted the attack.

DARPA said “luck and unsophisticated manual methods” stopped the attack, not an official, consistent tracking program. It noted the Pentagon is seeking companies to help it automatically search social networking sites so the U.S. military can gain more intelligence about potentially dangerous groups’ actions.

The military is expanding its efforts as social networks have emerged as a key tool in uprisings this year. People used Facebook and Twitter during the Arab Spring to organize their movements and protests in Egypt, Tunisia and other Arab countries as well.

Many Arab countries’ governments ordered Internet and cellular service shut down to cut off dissidents’ communications, showing how much they feared the power of social media sites influencing the uprisings.

The Pentagon’s plans for monitoring social networking may help the military gather information vital when dealing with such upheaval. For example, the military may use developing social media technology to learn whether citizens started a rebellion or whether outside forces wished to take control of a country by inciting its people to protest and riot.

The bidding period for the Pentagon’s proposal is open until late October, which means it may be some time before the military could start friending dissidents on Facebook or re-tweeting them on Twitter. But once the military starts using social networks on a more consistent basis, this practice may influence the ever-changing face of modern warfare.

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Facebook adds “Expected: Child” option for parents-to-be

Facebook has made it easier to let your friends and family know that you or your significant other is pregnant. The social networking giant has introduced an option that allows you to tell your network you are expecting a child.

All you have to do is pick the “Expected: Child” option from the drop down menu, pick a month day and year for the Due Date, and optionally provide a name. Last year, Facebook rolled out the option to add family members to your profile page, but only recently has it added the option to include not-yet-born members.

Facebook is constantly adding features that allow its members to further personalize their profiles. Six months ago, the company added two new relationship status options, “in a civil union” and “in a domestic partnership,” bringing the total number to 11.

As anything that Facebook does, the addition is a controversial one. Should people really add unborn children to their profile pages?

Many will argue that women and their significant others should still use more personal forms of communication to tell the exciting news to their families and close friends. Always remember who exactly is in your Facebook network of friends when making such an announcement: it would be unwise to tell an employer the news at the same time as everyone else. Then there’s the even more serious question: what if there’s a miscarriage? Deleting your unborn child from your profile page is the last thing you’ll want to do if you or your significant other has to go through such a sad experience.

Thousands of parents-to-be have created Facebook profile pages for their unborn children, so I’m sure this feature will be used by many. If you are one of these people, my only recommendation is to at least do so later in the pregnancy rather than as soon as you get the confirmation from the doctor.

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