https://ntrepidcorp.com/ has the contract. Does the Herndon address suggest they're more interested in traditional Beltway Banditry than Cambridge Analytica style targeted marketing?
As to astroturfing in general, not only was it mentioned in the Arthashastra, but Linebarger even claims a biblical example:
> "The story is told in the seventh chapter of the Book of Judges. Gideon was in a tactically poor position. The Midianites outnumbered him and were on the verge of smiting him very thoroughly. Ordinary combat methods could not solve the situation, so Gideon —acting upon more exalted inspiration than is usually vouchsafed modern commanders— took the technology and military formality of his time into account.
Retaining three hundred selected men, he sought for some device which would cause real confusion in the enemy host. He knew well that the tactics of his time called for every century of men to have one light-carrier and one torch-bearer for the group. By equipping three hundred men with a torch and a trumpet each, he could create the effect of thirty thousand."
This news does lend fresh plausibility to the accusations made in https://demotivation.me/images/20140405/rhq85mwjl9qh.jpg ...
Linebarger's history of US WWII propaganda carefully states given explicit authority in:
> "The FIS was taken from the COI, and the COI took on the new name of OSS—Office of Strategic Services—under which it retained three major functions:
> (1) continuation of scholastic and informal intelligence;
> (2) black propaganda operations (given explicit authority only in March, 1943);
> (3) subversive operations, in collaboration with regular military authority."
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/48612/48612-h/48612-h.htm#Pag...
As to astroturfing in general, not only was it mentioned in the Arthashastra, but Linebarger even claims a biblical example:
> "The story is told in the seventh chapter of the Book of Judges. Gideon was in a tactically poor position. The Midianites outnumbered him and were on the verge of smiting him very thoroughly. Ordinary combat methods could not solve the situation, so Gideon —acting upon more exalted inspiration than is usually vouchsafed modern commanders— took the technology and military formality of his time into account. Retaining three hundred selected men, he sought for some device which would cause real confusion in the enemy host. He knew well that the tactics of his time called for every century of men to have one light-carrier and one torch-bearer for the group. By equipping three hundred men with a torch and a trumpet each, he could create the effect of thirty thousand."
I'm currently thinking creating a deradicalisation rabbit hole would be a far more ethical means of achieving OEV's goal: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24373042
Bonus play: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/844/844-h/844-h.htm (although Wilde's Earnest is merely duplicitous and not decacitous)