Advances in China’s use of “hostile social manipulation” represent an emerging threat to America’s vital interests, according to a recent report (pdf) by RAND Corporation think tank.
State-sponsored information warfare has become an important tool of global strategic competition, said the report published on Sept. 4. Practitioners of hostile social manipulation, the report said, can devise online social media campaigns that employ sophisticated forgeries, cyberbullying and harassment of individuals, distribution of rumors and conspiracy theories, and other methodologies to cause damage to a targeted state.
