Skip to main content

Social Media in Defence

Do we want our forces to be ‘social’ on the battlefield?

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) like all organisations are looking to benefit from the opportunities that digital transformation provide, such as the adoption of technologies such as Social Media. However, as with all digital transformation project the obvious benefits to be gained can at times overshadow and obscure the impacts. That’s not to say that defence departments and agencies aren’t risk aware, it’s just that their approach isn’t necessarily holistic.

Digital transformation projects look at the ability to augment or replace traditionally manual, analogue, or non-existent processes with digital ones. Digitization allows for greater scalability and efficiency making those processes simpler, cheaper, and provides a greater business benefit. Social media is a great example of this as it provides a streamlined method for those deployed forces to continue to communicate and interact with their family, friends and colleagues back home.

Social media is a demonstrably more efficient method to achieve this over writing letters and non-digital methods. Unfortunately just as the benefits are made more efficient by digitization so too are the risks. 

The traditional risks of information disclosure (accidentally revealing operationally compromising information), propaganda/persuasion, and reputational damage used to be mitigated to some extent through the reading & censorship of the communications. However, the increased volume of communications and their near-instantaneous delivery method of social media makes in-line review near to impossible. Therefore forces are increasingly reliant on self-policing and training over independent review and censorship.

If you look at the guidance put out on the use of social media by organizations such as the UK MOD & US Air Force, there is a definite ‘modern take on traditional risks’ approach. The guidance focuses on those risks exacerbated by the technology (e.g. accidental information disclosure, or reputational impact) without addressing the new risks previously unseen. Specifically in the area of the previously unseen cognitive impacts to deployed forces.

Put another way, the risks to the mission from the use of social media are being addressed but not necessarily the risks to the users. It is a well-documented phenomena that UAS (drone) pilots operating battlefield missions from home bases have difficulty transitioning back to family life at the end of their shift. The cognitive dissonance of quickly transitioning from warzone to family zone does not give the operator an ability to mentally shift and compartmentalize their mission duties from their familial duties. The same is true of social media on the battlefield. Deployed forces have found partners, as well as nurtured and developed those relationships through social media in a civilian environment. As a result, they have built up learned behaviours and expectations through their interactions online. These cannot often be replicated in the battle field, from how quickly they can respond, to their content, style, and frame of mind. As a result deployed forces are having to make context switches from ‘home-life’ to ‘deployed-life’ very quickly which can negatively impact the mental health of those deployed and their relationships with people back home.
If these types of impact are not considered and addressed then unanticipated impacts can occur. There are many different methods from presentational & human factors, to accessibility & training that can be used to help minimize the cognitive impacts from bringing civilian/home life into the battlefield.

Thales’s Cyber & Consulting business takes a holistic approach to digital transformation looking at the technical, cognitive, and operational aspects. Our team of human factors, business transformation and cyber consultants all work together to help ensure that organizations such as the MOD can achieve the benefits of digital transformation (such as the use of social media) without also incurring unaddressed risk and impact to the business or mission.

Thales will be speaking at the Social Media in the Defence & Military event on 14 November to 15 November 2016, London