The government figured out sockpuppet managment but not "persona management".

[nashville_brook]

78. precisely -- and as of this month, there's no law against Pentagon propagandizing Americans!

in reporting on the Smith-Mundt Amendment, the media has focused on Voice of American and Radio Free Europe...but the act covers social media, and proponents have been specifically interested in upping the Pentagon's game on US soil with social media and internet technology.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-wp-wp-frgnp-bc-propaganda15-20130715,0,4048254.story

U.S. repeals propaganda ban, spreads government-made news to Americans


By John Hudson, Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy
11:20 p.m. CDT, July 15, 2013

WASHINGTON — For decades, a so-called anti-propaganda law prevented the U.S. government's mammoth broadcasting arm from delivering programming to American audiences. But this month, that came silently to an end with the implementation of a reform passed in January. The result: an unleashing of thousands of hours per week of government-funded radio and TV programs for domestic U.S. consumption in a reform initially criticized as a green light for U.S. domestic propaganda efforts. So what just happened?

(snip)...the Smith-Mundt Act, a long-standing piece of legislation that has been amended numerous times over the years, perhaps most consequentially by Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright, D. In the 70s, Fulbright was no friend of VOA and Radio Free Europe, and moved to restrict them from domestic distribution, saying they "should be given the opportunity to take their rightful place in the graveyard of Cold War relics." Fulbright's amendment to Smith-Mundt was bolstered in 1985 by Nebraska Senator Edward Zorinsky, D, who argued that such "propaganda" should be kept out of America as to distinguish the U.S. "from the Soviet Union where domestic propaganda is a principal government activity."

(snip)

But if anyone needed a reminder of the dangers of domestic propaganda efforts, the past 12 months provided ample reasons. Last year, two USA Today journalists were ensnared in a propaganda campaign after reporting about millions of dollars in back taxes owed by the Pentagon's top propaganda contractor in Afghanistan. Eventually, one of the co-owners of the firm confessed to creating phony websites and Twitter accounts to smear the journalists anonymously.

(snip)