David Bridges
Taylor Swift just lately confirmed up in a Pentagon report. Why is the DoD studying concerning the world’s most well-known pop star? The reply appears to be: As a result of folks on the web had been speaking about her and the Protection Division screens the entire web.
Journalist Ken Klippenstein managed to get ahold of an intelligence report that mentions the singer. The report comes from the Joint Navy Data Assist Operations Internet Operations Heart (JMWC), a little-known company below Particular Operations Command that’s tasked with monitoring social media and “counter[ing] hostile propaganda and disinformation” via psychological operations work, Klippenstein writes, citing a authorities report.
The report discovered that there was “appreciable anxiousness amongst social media customers” after the cancellation of a number of Swift concert events earlier this month. These concert events had been scheduled to be held in Vienna however had been canceled after threats from alleged would-be terrorists. Quite a lot of younger males had been arrested in connection to an obvious plot to kill folks en masse. The suspects had allegedly deliberate to detonate explosive gadgets on the concert events.
Understandably, these plots freaked out lots of people, a indisputable fact that the Pentagon apparently needed to monitor the web to determine. “A substantial variety of netizens have voiced their apprehensions relating to the growing international threats posed by ISIS,” the report states. If you happen to’re considering this all appears like a tempest in a teapot and a waste of presidency sources, properly, Klippenstein notes: “A Pentagon inspector basic analysis of the middle’s effectiveness discovered that the workforce lacked clear coverage and oversight” in 2023.
Swift has been tied up in all kinds of political intrigue over the previous few months. Because the presidential election has heated up, Swift has develop into a discursive pawn in each Democrats’ and Republicans’ battle to win hearts and minds. Earlier this yr, Republicans had been busy with the conspiracy idea that Swift was a Pentagon “PSYOP.” Extra just lately, amidst rumors that Swift may present up on the Democratic Nationwide Committee to endorse Kamala Harris, the MAGA political sphere has been in a kind of panic. Not way back, Donald Trump posted an AI-generated picture and appeared to indicate that Swift had endorsed him. Upon discovering out that the picture was pretend (and after it was made obvious that Swift may sue him for spreading the imagery), Trump denounced AI.
Daniel Mercer
Brandon Fletcher
