It’s extremely funny that hundreds of sensitive US military documents appeared on Discord, the decentralized social media platform. Or at least that’s how a very online person, who traffics in memes and crass one-liners, might put it. But it is darkly funny that a disgruntled service member has thrown the US security state into a panic.
And it’s ironic that no one in intelligence agencies seems to have seen it coming.
New reports from the Washington Post and the New York Times reveal in great detail the young man who allegedly posted the sensitive intelligence files: a 21-year-old Air National Guard member named Jack Teixeira.
On Thursday, the FBI arrested him.
Teixeira reportedly posted the documents in forums dedicated to gaming, where a group of 24 people, mostly male and young, also shared offensive memes, information about guns, and more — and in turn has shown that the DOD and intelligence agencies are not prepared for our current digital age.
The US national security institutions have put a major emphasis on integrating advanced technologies, like artificial intelligence, into their arsenals. They’ve also invested heavily in recruiting young and mid-career tech talent from unlikely spaces. In practice, that means that the CIA regularly hosts events at tech forums like South by Southwest, and the National Security Agency posts memes about World Introvert Day (“NSA is known as the world’s largest employer of introverts for a reason!”).
But at their core, none of these institutions have grappled with the shape of internet culture and how that affects the people among the military’s ranks.
It’s not about TikTok. It’s about edgelords.
So how did the US national security establishment miss this?
After the perpetrator of a racist mass shooting in Buffalo in May 2022…
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