Information Warfare: Psychological Strategies in the Era of Unregulated Data Threats

In the contemporary landscape of conflict, the information environment has emerged as a decisive terrain. This is particularly evident in the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, which has been extensively documented and fought on social media.

The Psychological Operations (PSYOP) community is responding to this shift by modernizing its capabilities. The US Army, for instance, is undergoing an upgrade of its data and network capabilities, as outlined by Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth, to maintain its advantage in contested areas.

In a world where information is abundant and rapidly changing, PSYOP units need tools that support language translation, optical character recognition, and speech-to-text translation. This is especially crucial in constrained information environments, where the competition for influence is intense.

On the other hand, in unconstrained information environments, which are highly contested, have high internet access, and are filled with numerous media narratives and sources, PSYOP units are less effective. Here, modernization requires improvements in collection and analytic capabilities to gain a first-mover advantage.

Technical skill and innovation are encouraged in the PSYOP community, with a focus on "failing fast and learning fast." A standard algorithmic toolkit for PSYOP detachments includes language-translation tools, multimodal algorithms for processing memes and videos, API scraping tools, and access to open-source news and publicly available datasets.

Integrating soldiers into roles where they may use these skills is crucial, ideally on a team that can provide more in-depth on-the-job training and domain knowledge. PSYOP planners can benefit from a standardized dashboard with livestream information on trending social media topics, event-based alerts, and audio-to-text machine translation.

The modernization of PSYOP also involves exploitation of publicly available information. Notable examples include Ukraine's successful social media campaigns that have garnered international and domestic support, and even elicited foreign military aid. A poignant instance was a video of a Ukrainian farmer stealing a Russian tank with a tractor, which boosted Ukrainian morale significantly.

Russia and China excel in data aggregation, monitoring, and social media use in the information environment. This necessitates the need for soldiers with technical competence. Training programs like the Joint Special Operations Command's data literacy pipeline and data bootcamps like Code Academy can provide the necessary skills.

The competition for influence in the information environment has a first-mover advantage. In this context, the modernization of PSYOP is not just about keeping up with the times, but about seizing opportunities and maintaining an edge. The information environment is becoming increasingly complex and important for the cognitive aspect of conflict, and PSYOP units need to adapt to thrive in this new landscape.

In summary, the modernization of PSYOP involves a blend of exploiting publicly available information, skill training, automated and machine learning-aided workflows, and software solutions. This "PSYOP Modernisierung" is essential for military and governmental agencies to influence, disrupt, or manipulate the perceptions and behaviors of target audiences effectively in the information age.

Information Warfare: Psychological Strategies in the Era of Unregulated Data Threats