Militaries increasingly view social media sites as important tools
UNIPATH STAFF
Officers and cadets from Kazakhstan’s Military Institute of Land Forces took part in a January 2014 seminar discussing religious extremism in the country and measures to counter terrorism. That same day, the event appeared on the Kazakh Ministry of Defense’s Facebook page with a link to the complete story on the ministry’s website.
By using a social media platform favored by hundreds of thousands of Kazakhs, the military was able to spread important counterterrorism messages beyond its ranks and almost instantaneously to the public.
Increasingly across the Middle East and Central and South Asia, militaries are using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and other social media platforms to achieve their objectives. These websites provide a unique opportunity for militaries to reach huge audiences quickly to dispel rumors and misinformation, counter enemy propaganda and share public safety information. Although these forums cannot replace conventional media outlets such as television and news websites, they let militaries control their messages more directly.
In 2013, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Defense created public accounts on Facebook and Twitter. Users can link to the official social media sites through the ministry website, offered in Kazakh, Russian and English: http://www.mod.gov.kz/. The sites extol military achievements and training, share defense-related news and promote positive social values such as volunteerism. For instance, when cadets visited an orphanage in Almaty to hand gifts to children, Facebook conveyed the details to the world.
Social media saturation
In 2013, social media sites drew huge audiences from the Arabic-speaking public, according to the Arab Social Media Report, a recurring series produced by the Dubai School of Government. Here’s a snapshot: In mid-2013, there were 54.5 million Facebook users in Arab-speaking countries, up from about 45 million the year before. Twitter boasted 3.7 million users, and LinkedIn had about 4.7 million from the same region and period.
“The exponential penetration rates and the creative adoption of social media in the Arab region have opened new horizons for multifaceted innovations by individuals, developmental uses by government entities and unleashed new social trends by different forces in Arab societies,” the report noted. “Social media technologies today are increasingly being acknowledged by different Arab government organizations as core enablers for inclusive policy formulation and better service delivery on an institutional level.”
Calls for strategy
In May 2013, Nation Shield, the official journal of the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces, hosted a symposium on social media and its implications for the military. During the event, experts and media professionals asserted the importance of using social networks to help create and develop a stronger relationship between the military and the people. Social networks serve as a tool to communicate a clear vision and address rumors that could influence national or regional security.
Nation Shield Editor-in-Chief Staff Maj. Yousef Juma Al Hadad stressed the importance of “developing military media with tremendous technological innovation.”
He said the development of online military media is strategically important to the military, and efforts to use these forums should be prioritized over traditional media such as newspapers and radio.
Dr. Ali Qasem Al-Shuaibi, media advisor for Dubai Police’s Community Service, said military and police public affairs or moral guidance departments must adapt to include strategies that address online media. He also stressed the importance of developing forces able to handle information technology to address the public during crises.
“The idea of traditional moral guidance is no longer active and influential in a world where information can travel great distances from the source at tremendous speeds,” Al-Shuaibi said.
Using social media to counter enemy propaganda during a crisis is a tactic being practiced by militaries across the world. During U.S. Central Command’s 2013 Regional Cooperation military exercise in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, forces from Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and the United States addressed this issue. For the first time in 10 years, the annual disaster management command-post exercise included a multinational group dedicated to information operations. The Soldiers developed plans to respond to and counter fictional terrorists who were posting propaganda to social media sites, among other outlets.
Social media in practice
Launched in June 2013, the Pakistan Army uses its Facebook page (www.facebook.com/officialpakarmy) to interact with the public. “We want to hear from you, connect with you and welcome your frequent visits for news and updates,” the page states.
It encourages Pakistanis to share questions and opinions within guidelines that ban abusive and hateful language and anti-state and anti-military comments. Nevertheless, suggestions on how to improve the Army are acceptable.
Another regional example of military social media initiatives can be found in Egypt. In October 2012, former Egyptian Armed Forces spokesman Col. Ahmed Mohammed Ali launched Facebook (www.facebook.com/Egy.Army.Spox) and Twitter accounts (http://twitter.com/EgyArmySpox) to communicate directly with the Egyptian people and media. These sites complement the official Egyptian Armed Forces Facebook page (www.facebook.com/Egyptian.Armed.Forces) launched in February 2011. Like the Pakistan Army’s site, the Egyptian sites aim to serve as an arena for discussion about the Armed Forces.
These Egyptian Twitter and Facebook pages are updated several times a day with news, video and photos that highlight activities such as counterterrorism in the Sinai.
“There is a new vision, a youthful leadership that believes in the importance of communication and the existence of information warfare,” Ali told Daily News Egypt in May 2013. “Also [we have] learned from the lessons of transitional period [in 2011-2012]. The military institution always revises and assesses its performance. We admit there was a lack in information and media coverage of the military institution throughout the last year and a half, which caused problems. We [currently] believe in the importance of communicating with the media.”
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Does your military organization successfully use social media platforms to achieve objectives? Share best practices and experiences with Unipath readers. Write to us at [email protected].