The Air & Space Brief: New social-media limits, drone warfare, SpaceX’s 100th landing

Welcome to the Defense One Air and Space newsletter. Here are our top stories this week:  

Extremism and social media: The Pentagon released its year-long extremism review Monday, and with it, a revised DOD instruction that prohibits the endorsement of extremist views on social media. One example: ‘liking’ a post that espouses any violation of a service member’s Constitutional oath, such as suggesting an overturn of election results, could lead to punishment of a service member, the Pentagon said Monday. For now, the department is going to focus on educating members and leaving administrative actions up to the discretion of commanders. 

But: It will be tough for the Pentagon to monitor or prove extremist ties through one social media action, a former senior official cautioned. That data will need to be cross-checked with other potential flags, such as financial issues, trying to access unauthorized content, and arrest records, the official said. 

Drone-war damage: In the wake of new revelations about Pentagon drone strikes, a Yemeni man writes,  (Personal commentary)  “President Joe Biden recently announced an end to America’s “forever wars.” If only we could take him at his word in Yemen. My uncle and my cousin were collateral damage in America’s drone wars. To this day, the U.S. still has not admitted to, much less apologized for, their deaths. For years my family have sought answers and accountability. 

SpaceX 100th landing: SpaceX Falcon 9 booster completed its 100th successful landing Tuesday, six years to the day of its first landing, Space News reported. Falcon 9 launched a cargo Dragon into space to complete an ISS restocking mission early Tuesday; the booster touched down on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. 

Sign up to get The Air & Space Brief every Tuesday from Tara Copp, Defense One’s Senior Pentagon Reporter. On Dec. 24, 1968, humans saw the dark side of the Moon for the first time, aboard Apollo 8.

From Defense One

Click ‘Like’, Get Punished Under Pentagon’s New Anti-Extremism Policy // Tara Copp: First update since 2012 adds rules for social-media behavior.

One Social-Media ‘Like’ Doesn’t Say Much About a Potential Extremist // Patrick Tucker: Data from open-source social media is generally only helpful in combination with other information.

My Children Live in Fear of US Drones // Ahmed Ali Jaber: It is time to end America’s use of airstrikes that too often kill the innocent.