No, it's political as well. Imagine knowing the talking points and agendas of politicians before an international political gathering. The Cuban Twitter program

No, it's political as well. Imagine knowing the talking points and agendas of politicians before an international political gathering. The Cuban Twitter program is another example of non-corporate use. Sabotage and owning of infrastructure as a deterrent is also popular. Corporate espionage is huge, though. China is involved with enormous amounts of industrial espionage and the NSA specifies the Bureau of Commerce as a primary customer. Definitely the second is true. "Radicalizers" are identified and quieted. PsyOps are used (for example JTRIG with NSA) to spook and discredit people. (https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140224/17054826340/new-snowden-doc-reveals-how-gchqnsa-use-internet-to-manipulate-deceive-destroy-reputations.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140224/17054826340/new-s...) You may remember online porn browsing habits are collected by the NSA to discredit and blackmail leaders. Furthermore MINERVA and sister programs are used to seed and quiet dissent by serving targeted online advertisements and content. Many study the concept of "social contagion" - the idea that influencing a few key people who are key social figures can influence the behavior and beliefs of groups. PHK does a great job describing how problematic technological and incendiary political discussions are derailed (http://mirror.as35701.net/video.fosdem.org//2014/Janson/Sunday/NSA_operation_ORCHESTRA_Annual_Status_Report.webm http://mirror.as35701.net/video.fosdem.org//2014/Janson/Sund...). The defense industry hires Astroturfers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HBGary#Astroturfing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HBGary#Astroturfing) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing#Business_and_adoption https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing#Business_and_adop...) and online social network analysis is a key part of modern political tooling (http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/07/inside-the-secret-world-of-quants-and-data-crunchers-who-helped-obama-win/ http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/07/inside-the-secret-world...) (http://mprcenter.org/blog/2013/01/how-obama-won-the-social-media-battle-in-the-2012-presidential-campaign/ http://mprcenter.org/blog/2013/01/how-obama-won-the-social-m...). It shouldn't be a surprise, as the Web makes money off of selling personal information and showing targeted content - when it isn't a state surveillance and propaganda platform, it's a corporate one. (http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/937b06c2-3ebd-11e4-adef-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3Dz2wbYoI http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/937b06c2-3ebd-11e4-adef-00144...) Media manipulation is fairly common place, although it is practiced pretty carefully. (http://www.globalissues.org/article/461/media-reporting-journalism-and-propaganda http://www.globalissues.org/article/461/media-reporting-jour...) (https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/09/04/former-l-times-reporter-cleared-stories-cia-publication/ https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/09/04/former-l-times...). The Fallujah PsyOp is a great example of how US media is a victim of direct US led propaganda.