Whitehall to train pro-West Islamic groups to game Google
Chris Williams | 10.04.2009 08:27 | Technology | Terror War
Whitehall officials will train pro-West Islamic groups to manipulate their Google search ranking in an attempt to drown out extremist voices online, The Register has learned.
The policy is being developed despite recent warnings from a group of international experts on radicalisation that such strategies are likely to be "largely ineffectual".
The Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT), a 200-strong Home Office unit created 18 months ago, has said in meetings it wants to "flood the internet" with "positive" interpretations of Islam. It plans to train government-approved groups in search engine optimisation techniques, which it's hoped will boost their profile online and battle radicalisation.
Organisations such as Quilliam, which describes itself as "the world's first counter-extremism think tank" and is jointly led by former radical Ed Husain, have been identified as potential beneficiaries of the work. A spokesman for the group declined to comment.
Officials are currently understood to be in the early stages of the programme.
A Home Office spokesman confirmed search engine optimisation training is part of the government's anti-radicalisation strategy. "In order to support mainstream voices, we work with local partners to help develop their communication, representational and leadership skills," he said.
"This support could include media training, which can help make their voices heard more widely, and support the development of skills which allow communities to be more effective in debate."
The effectiveness of search engine optimisation in reducing traffic to extremist websites has been dismissed by academics however. In March, a report produced by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) said young Muslims were much more likely to be directed to extremist material online by web forums and offline associates than by Google or other search engines.
"Tweaking the results for supposedly extremist terms would be largely ineffectual, not least because it is unlikely that any but the most callow wannabe terrorist would use a mainstream search engine to find banned material," the authors wrote. ICSR is a collaboration between British, American, Israeli and Jordanian universities.
The embattled Home Secretary Jacqui Smith recently launched the government's updated counter-terror strategy, CONTEST 2, which put heavy emphasis on countering extremist views. In December she said: "We will host a core network of people who will put forward positive messages from the British Muslim community on the internet, directly challenging the extremists that set out to groom vulnerable individuals."
The OSCT plans to help Islamic groups manipulate their Google rankings appear to be a part of that "direct challenge". The Home and Foreign Offices also set up the secretive Research, Information and Communications Unit, which actively produces and distributes propaganda against extremist groups.
Search engine optimisation techniques are used widely by news organisations and online merchants to make websites more attractive to Google's ranking algorithm. They are broadly classified into legitimate "white hat" manipulation methods such as using common keywords in page titles, and "black hat" methods, which try to trick search engines into giving undeservedly high rankings.
When Google detects black hat methods it bans the page from its index, as it did to the German website of car maker BMW in 2006. ®
The Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT), a 200-strong Home Office unit created 18 months ago, has said in meetings it wants to "flood the internet" with "positive" interpretations of Islam. It plans to train government-approved groups in search engine optimisation techniques, which it's hoped will boost their profile online and battle radicalisation.
Organisations such as Quilliam, which describes itself as "the world's first counter-extremism think tank" and is jointly led by former radical Ed Husain, have been identified as potential beneficiaries of the work. A spokesman for the group declined to comment.
Officials are currently understood to be in the early stages of the programme.
A Home Office spokesman confirmed search engine optimisation training is part of the government's anti-radicalisation strategy. "In order to support mainstream voices, we work with local partners to help develop their communication, representational and leadership skills," he said.
"This support could include media training, which can help make their voices heard more widely, and support the development of skills which allow communities to be more effective in debate."
The effectiveness of search engine optimisation in reducing traffic to extremist websites has been dismissed by academics however. In March, a report produced by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) said young Muslims were much more likely to be directed to extremist material online by web forums and offline associates than by Google or other search engines.
"Tweaking the results for supposedly extremist terms would be largely ineffectual, not least because it is unlikely that any but the most callow wannabe terrorist would use a mainstream search engine to find banned material," the authors wrote. ICSR is a collaboration between British, American, Israeli and Jordanian universities.
The embattled Home Secretary Jacqui Smith recently launched the government's updated counter-terror strategy, CONTEST 2, which put heavy emphasis on countering extremist views. In December she said: "We will host a core network of people who will put forward positive messages from the British Muslim community on the internet, directly challenging the extremists that set out to groom vulnerable individuals."
The OSCT plans to help Islamic groups manipulate their Google rankings appear to be a part of that "direct challenge". The Home and Foreign Offices also set up the secretive Research, Information and Communications Unit, which actively produces and distributes propaganda against extremist groups.
Search engine optimisation techniques are used widely by news organisations and online merchants to make websites more attractive to Google's ranking algorithm. They are broadly classified into legitimate "white hat" manipulation methods such as using common keywords in page titles, and "black hat" methods, which try to trick search engines into giving undeservedly high rankings.
When Google detects black hat methods it bans the page from its index, as it did to the German website of car maker BMW in 2006. ®
Chris Williams
Homepage:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/09/google_extremism_manipulation/
Comments
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RICU: Imperial Disinformation
10.04.2009 08:40
"This project seeks to better understand the flow of anti-western and often militant ideology, propaganda and discourse, particularly as it impacts on the UK. This project seeks to add to this mapping of this flow, and in particular examine where particular ideologies are being promulgated, by which particular groups and through which particular sources on the net. In addition, the aim is to understand how particular extremist and violent ideas are legitimised; and the means by which they might spread into popular culture."
It has a multi-million pound budget:
"The Research, Information and Communications Unit is comprised of 29 permanent members of staff: 15 members of staff from the Home Office, eight members of staff from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and six members of staff from the Department for Communities and Local Government. When fully recruited the Unit will have 33 permanent staff.
(a) Unit operational costs for 2008-09 amount £4,219,305 (made up of admin allocation £959,305 and programme allocation £3,260,000)
(b) Unit operational costs for 2009-10 amount to £6,651,646 (made up of admin allocation £951,646 and programme allocation £5,700,000)
(c) Unit operational costs for 2010-11 amount to £8,144,371 (made up of admin allocation £944,371 and programme allocation £7,200,000)."
It's clearly a disinformation opperation:
"A Whitehall counter-terrorism unit is targeting the BBC and other media organisations as part of a new global propaganda push designed to "taint the al-Qaida brand", according to a secret Home Office paper seen by the Guardian.
The document also shows that Whitehall counter-terrorism experts intend to exploit new media websites and outlets with a proposal to "channel messages through volunteers in internet forums" as part of their campaign."
And it's part of the old game of Empire:
"RICU - the new IRD?
Updated 29th August 2008
The Foreign Office's Information & Research Department (IRD) played a significant role in Western news and cultural media management from 1948-1977. It financed a publishing house 'Ampersand' and at one time employed a staff of 300. A secret Foreign Office memo in February 1948 described its establishment as a response to the "developing communist threat to the whole fabric of Western civilization".
By the late-1960s the IRD was cut back by the Labour Government, and Intelligence writer Stephen Dorril states that it found additional work in Northern Ireland: "its Information Policy section was engaged in the 1970s in running propaganda campaigns against mainland politicians”. IRD was closed down in 1977 because its cover was blown by a persistent researcher Richard Fletcher. The Foreign Secretary at the time, David (now Lord) Owen was reported in The Guardian (18 August 1995) as stating that the IRD had become involved in the grey area of manipulating journalism and that clandestine operations were MI6’s job, not that of a "civil department".
The post-cold war, post 9/11 era now sees the establishment of a cross-government research, information and communication unit (RICU) to tackle "the spread of radical Islamist ideas" (The Guardian, 30th March 2007). By October 2007 RICU had a staff of 30 to "counter al-Qaida propaganda and win hearts and minds", headed by Jonathan Allen. It is "part of the Home Office, but will work closely with the Foreign Office and Department of Communities and Local Government. Whitehall officials are being asked to draw up 'counter-narratives' to the anti-western messages on websites designed to influence vulnerable and impressionable audiences here. They will set out to explain what one official called the government's 'foreign policy in its totality’, counter the accusations made by al-Qaida sympathisers and extremist groups and pinpoint the weaknesses in their arguments. ... The unit will also support 'alternative voices’ in the Muslim community." (The Guardian, 20th November 2007).
This Salaam Dossier keeps track on the information on RICU entering the public domain."
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