ARE "TWITTER RANDOS" A CURSE OR AN ASSET? WARFARE IN THE TIME OF SOCIAL MEDIA
ARE "TWITTER RANDOS" A CURSE OR AN ASSET? WARFARE IN THE TIME OF SOCIAL MEDIA By Steve Douglass Maj. Claire Randolph, US Air Forces Central Command (AFCENT), Chief of Weapons & Tactics — and whether it’s accurate or credible, based on reporting and official context: Maj. Randolph warned about operational security (OPSEC) risks from social media, especially when open-source observers track and publish movements of U.S. aircraft, making otherwise sensitive operational details broadly visible. This point — that public flight tracking and social-media reporting can make mission data visible in ways militaries would normally treat as restricted or classified — isn’t a fringe view. Defense analysts and military officials in multiple countries have raised similar concerns about adversaries exploiting open-source intelligence (OSINT) platforms for actionable insight. But the phrasing seen in social media paraphrases (“considered Secret or Top Secret if done internally”) is i...
