Atin Ito First Filipino Community Newspaper in Ontario
The objective is to influence the opinion of China’s adversaries through the manipulation of information.
The National Security Council, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s advisory body on foreign threats, revealed recently a “cognitive warfare” involving efforts to turn Filipinos’ perception to China’s side.
National Security Council Assistant Director General and spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said that part of the assault, which the nation easily fell for, was the floating of a supposed Philippine government promise to remove the BRP Sierra Madre from the Ayungin Shoal, a likely fiction perpetrated by Beijing’s agents in media.
The goal is to drive a wedge between the Filipino public and the government through doubts about the intentions of their leaders on the West Philippine Sea conflict.
Despite President Marcos denial and a directive rescinding all past commitments regarding the removal of the ship that serves as an outpost in the area of dispute, the conspiracy to deceive persisted.
Malaya said cognitive warfare involves a multipronged propaganda campaign that includes the use of artificial intelligence.
The objective is to influence the opinion of China’s adversaries through the manipulation of information.
“They are undermining our country’s position through their political operators here at a time when we need to be united and show the world that we are supporting the Philippines’ stand,” Malaya said.
“We’re falling into their trap and instead of uniting as a country we are quarreling because allegedly there are traitors,” he added.
A recent study conducted by the California-based think tank Rand Corp. for the US Department of Defense revealed the People’s Liberation Army’s increasing interest “in the cognitive domain.”
“All of the PLA concepts reflect a heavy emphasis on leveraging emerging technology, and some of them have immense ambitions for shaping adversary behavior through psychological warfare, suggesting broad strategic-level goals,” according to the study called Chinese Next-Generation Psychological Warfare.
The development of informationized war, which is a term that China often uses, has decided the inevitable enlarged role of psychological warfare in a conflict involving the Asian giant.
Rand Corp. said the Chinese strategy takes different approaches and is evolving quickly.
The study cited as an example strong evidence the PLA has developed and employed information manipulation capabilities and laser weapons in the campaign, “although it is unclear whether these have been specifically intended as psychological warfare.”
It added that PLA researchers also discussed a range of other challenges, including developing high-quality personnel, accurate modeling and simulation, and “foreign language capabilities.”
Because the PLA believes that the advent of artificial intelligence, or AI, and “other macro trends will make warfare faster paced and more complicated, cognitive domain places a premium on human decision-making.”
At the moment, the study said discussions on the cognitive domain currently center on using the Internet and media, specifically social media, to manipulate foreign public opinion.
The study cited available Chinese military research that indicated cognitive domain operations as differing from traditional psychological warfare approaches in several ways.
“Some researchers argue that the concept heralds a revolutionary advancement: first, its ambitions to influence adversary perceptions; second, the scope of the targets; third, the combat methods discussed; and fourth, its embrace of emerging technologies,” the study indicated.
What has been transpiring lately bears out the shifting strategy in the conduct of war which starts with the battle for minds through the use of modern technology.
With AI, cognitive warfare is expected to take a new leap in which it would be hard to discern reality from fiction since machines will generate the information that will be fed to the public.
The only weapon against lies and deceptions that are expected to flood Filipinos’ consciousness is vigilance and retrospection and belief in the country’s leadership rather than subscribing to the filth found in cyberspace.
*****
Credit belongs to: tribune.net.ph
