Long ago, back in 2020, I wrote "Truth Dies First: Storyweapons on the InfoOps Battlefield", a piece for The Cyber Defense Review's Special Edition on Information Operations/Information Warfare. 1/10 - PDF is here: https://cyberdefensereview.army.mil/Portals/6/Documents/CDR%20Journal%20Articles/Gleeson_CDR%20V5N2%20Summer%202020.pdf?ver=2020-07-27-053231-9671/9

I defined "Storyweapons" as "adversarial narratives that leverage algorithms, automation, codespaces and data to hack decision-making and the stories of who we are, what we believe and why it matters." 2/10

Yesterday we witnessed a Storyweapon in action, deployed by the holder of the highest office in the US in a direct assault on the foundations of democracy. With real world, human consequences. 3/10

This is not the first or last time we will see Storyweapons in action. 4/10

In my CDR piece, I wrote "To 'defend the United States against all enemies' means defeating foreign and domestic adversaries who use Storyweapons to
attack our democracy, our institutions, and our people." 5/10

"They are doing it right here, right
now, and from every screen, weaponizing the information environments and the connected spaces in which we live." 6/10

The "story" of America is (and has been) under direct frontal assault by enemies foreign and - sadly - domestic. We need to develop mitigation/disruption strategies for the Storyweapons we navigate today, and the ones to come. 7/10

You don't just beat Storyweapons by disputing the misinfo/disinfo elements that prop them up. You have to beat the narratives they add up to. 8/10

The "story" of America has always been a work in progress. I like the story of an optimistic, inclusive, kind and fair America with opportunity for all. You may have a different story. Only together can we write the best possible story, and defend it. 9/10

If we don't choose to write our collective story, Storyweapons will write if for us. 10/10 @xolotl @marshallk @BDJFuturist @yasmind @CobusGreylingZA @vivian @MarkWarner @ArmyCyberInst