DARPA Combating Big Disinformation Campaigns

Wants Customized Software to Combat It

Source:  University of California Digital Media

Disinformation Attacks Becoming More Advanced at Rapid Rate 

The U.S. Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA, is launching a project to thwart large-scale disinformation attacks.  DARPA considers these automated fake news attacks and fake social media posts as a threat to national security.  The new program's goal is to develop and deploy customized software to immediately spot fake news disinformation. Experts say the pace of new methods to hack and disseminate disinformation is unprecedented.

Massive News Scanning and Evaluation by Algorithms

DARPA is now in discussions with software developers to design the system.  The Pentagon's R&D center wants to put the potential systems through rigorous testing.  The algorithm testing/detection process will scan and evaluate 250,000 news reports, 250,000 social media posts with 5,000 fake news items put into the mix.  The process is expected to take four years, well beyond the upcoming 2020 US Presidential elections.

Growing Concern About 2020

There is big and growing concern about the 2020 Presidential election being hit with disinformation and hacking attacks.  US officials are working on plans to prevent hackers from flooding social media with disinformation.