State Department's Fearsome Secret Weapon

State's Trolls 'Push Back' Against Anti-U.S. Bloggers

"The U.S. State Department is using a wide range of tactics to win over the populations of hostile countries such as Iran, according to James K. Glassman, Under Secretary For Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. "We want to bring people together," Glassman said during a teleconference on Wednesday. He listed programs ranging from pro-democracy videos to inviting the Iranian national basketball team to play in Salt Lake City.
But one initiative he cited really stood out. State employs eight professional Internet "trolls" whose job it is to log onto blogs in unfriendly countries and "push back" against what Glassman says is misinformation about the U.S.

[T]hey enter into digital conversations online either on other people’s blogs or other websites. And they identify themselves as working for the United States Government ... [A]t times they will ... say, you know, that’s not accurate, here’s the truth about U.S. policy and here’s a link, you can go to America.gov, you can go somewhere else. They do this in Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, and by the way, we hope soon, in Russian."