Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin is warning that social networks have become a tool for manipulating public opinion and that the threat of cyber war is already real.
Speaking at a lecture in Moscow, the man in charge of the defense industry said social networks allowed specialists to probe users without their consent or even knowledge the fact.
“A powerful manipulation of public opinion is being carried through – all sorts of “likes” and other buttons that you press there they instantly include you in certain groups that are later analyzed and systemized,” Rogozin said.
According the Deputy PM this allows for work with people who share opposition views by putting them into special sectors that cannot be seen by other users of open social networks.
“Through this they increase the number of people who receive special content that is undermining the authority of the state and the values of the established state. We know that this is being actively used,” he elaborated.
Rogozin added that the United States’ Department of State had created a special unit for work in social networks and that he had met the head of this unit who works so that the United States could reach their objectives in a non-military way.
The Russian official said that for NATO cyber warfare is already
a military threat and a military response, and Russia is also
watching these processes.