The Ministry of Defense of Japan starts research on controlling public opinion | Hacker News Reader

The Ministry of Defense of Japan starts research on controlling public opinion

nordot.app

15 pointsnogajun14 comments

We have nothing but deep respect for Japan and the Japanese language. However, HN is an English-language site, so posts here need to be in English. (It's hard enough to get people to read the articles, even when they are.) I suppose the thing to do is to wait until this story is reported in English somewhere, and then post that. I'm sorry!

A Yandex translation. (does UPI suggest this should show up in english on upi.com shortly?)

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9 (Upi)9 The Ministry of Defense has begun research into a tool that uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology to induce domestic public opinion on social networking sites (SNS), an interview with several government officials revealed.The aim is to create a trend in the Internet space where "influencers" who have influence on the Internet unconsciously transmit information in favor of the ministry, expand support for defense policy, foster hostility toward specific countries in an emergency, and dispel the momentum of anti・war and anti-war among the people.

China and Russia are actively engaged in "information warfare."The Ministry of Defense has determined that Japan also needs to acquire capabilities in this area.The revised security-related 3 document will also include improvements in the ability to respond to information warfare.

Whilst I appreciate where you're coming from, I have seen many articles posted here in other languages - mostly German, from memory - that have not received this treatment.

It works the same way for articles in German [1] or any other language [2].

You're right that moderation is inconsistent, but it's not because we're applying a double standard—it's because we only see a small portion of what gets posted. If you see a post that ought to have been moderated but hasn't been, the likeliest explanation is that we didn't see it [3]. You can help by flagging it or emailing us at hn@ycombinator.com.

[1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

[2] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

[3] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

Fair enough! Thanks for the insight - and the moderation, which I'm sure is not an easy task!

Would an automatically translated article helpful here, provided the translation is okayish?

Which guideline is that?

Here's a translation: https://nordot-app.translate.goog/973917552334143488?_x_tr_s...

    # Ministry of Defense launches research on manipulating public opinion Utilizing AI, guided by SNS

    According to interviews with several government officials on the 9th, the Ministry of Defense has begun research on using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to guide domestic public opinion on exchange sites (SNS). Influential "influencers" on the Internet unwittingly induce the ministry to transmit information that is advantageous to the ministry, thereby broadening support for defense policies, fostering hostility toward specific countries in times of crisis, The goal is to create a trend in the Internet space that dispels anti-war and anti-war momentum.

    China, Russia and other countries are actively engaged in information warfare. The Ministry of Defense has determined that Japan also needs to acquire capabilities in this area. The three revised security-related documents will also include measures to improve the ability to deal with information warfare.

Thanks for the translation.

Can't help but notice Japan is so whipped they can't bring themselves to even mention the country with the largest info warefare budget, the US.

Moreover, when it's on "domestic" opinion (as stated in the article), this has nothing to do anymore with warfare... it's just tools to undermine democracy at home. And any weakening of democracy is probably to the benefit of enemy countries in the long-term...

To put into perspective how scary that is, we have to remember that the Japanese government had hired (paid with our taxes) a troll farm to influence Twitter users before the 2021 elections. When the scandal was unveiled the Twitter account name went famous: "Dappi" (actually it was only one of the many accounts of this propaganda).

In particular, it was depicting leftist politicians as corrupted, weak, encouraging insults towards them, etc.

So, it may seem to you "just fair" that the Japanese government develops such techniques as a response to China and Russia doing the same, but here there is the knowledge that the Japanese government, under LDP rule (center-right to far-right), already have used these kind of weapons against its own population in the recent past.

What, isn't Dentsu doing a good enough job?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dentsu

If they are really just now "starting" research, they could do worse than to consult prior art, eg the US, which has published works several works (since at least 1914) on programs aimed at domestic public opinion.

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