News 6 Mashup: Aug. 9, 2021

Here is a News 6 mashup of top stories for the week of Aug. 9, 2021, straight from AWN News 6 Correspondent, Jolene McNutt:

Disinformation Threat to National Stability

A newly released RAND report explored the prevalence of foreign disinformation being spread on social media, reported Task & Purpose. The report found that disinformation, which differs from misinformation, is a threat being used by adversaries to “advance their own interests in the United States.” Task & Purpose defined misinformation as “including false, incomplete, or misleading information shared without the intent to mislead a target population.” Disinformation was defined as “deliberately designed to mislead target groups of people.”

“China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran have embraced disinformation on social media as a weapon of conflict, driven in part by their own deep-seated anxieties about the possible impact of the internet and social media on domestic stability,” RAND wrote.
The report made recommendations, including using the United States Air Force and Air Force Special Operations Command to “expand their information operations capabilities and responsibilities.” It also recommended that the U.S. government “publish a counter-disinformation strategy, leverage civil society groups and industry without outsourcing the counter-disinformation fight,” and more.

Air Force special operations’ next big battlefield: Facebook

DoD: Masks Reinstated in High-Risk-for-Transmission Areas

The Department of Defense has reissued guidance to wear face masks for “employees working in areas at high risk for transmission” of COVID-19. The mask policy comes after an uptick in COVID-19 cases across the country, largely attributed to the “fast-moving, high-transmittable Delta variant,” stated TRICARE.

DoD Revamps Career Website

Did you know that the Department of Defense is one of the largest civilian workforces in the country? It isn’t only made up of military members but also about 950,000 civilians. The DoD is working to get the word out that there are career opportunities through a their newly revamped website, DoD Civilian Careers. A quick tour of the website leads you into a quick survey of experience, interests, education, degrees, and credentials to set you up with a job search. Once you’ve filled out the survey (it took me about a minute total), the results point you down career paths that fit your answers. From there, you can explore job openings in related careers through USAJOBS.com. You can also find information on benefits, career development within the DoD, and more.

This Week in History

On Aug. 10, 1993, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was sworn in as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, where she served for 27 years. According to Cornell’s Legal Information Institute Oyez law project, “Justice Ginsburg proved time and again that she was a force to be reckoned with, and those who doubted her capacity to effectively complete her judicial duties needed only to look at her record in oral arguments, where she was, until her death, among the most avid questioners on the bench.” She was the first woman to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.