The move came after a report on fake US military-linked accounts that were promoting pro-Western narratives on Facebook and Twitter

Pentagon Opens Review Of Its Clandestine Psychological Operations

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Pentagon Opens Sweeping Review of Clandestine Psychological Operations

With the rise of Russia and China as strategic competitors, military commanders have wanted to fight back, including online. And Congress supported that. Frustrated with perceived legal obstacles to the Defense Department’s ability to conduct clandestine activities in cyberspace, Congress in late 2019 passed a law affirming that the military could conduct operations in the “information environment” to defend the United States and to push back against foreign disinformation aimed at undermining its interests. The measure, known as Section 1631*, allows the military to carry out clandestine psychologic operations without crossing what the CIA has claimed as its covert authority, alleviating some of the friction that had hindered such operations previously.

*The Law of Military Cyber Operations and the New NDAA