Misinformation, Disinformation and Mal-Information Campaign Detection Prototype

The Headquarters, United States Special Operations Command (HQ USSOCOM) is conducting market research in accordance with FAR 15.201. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP). The Government is still in the early acquisition planning stage and all activities at this time are considered market research. THIS REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. As stipulated in FAR 15.201, responses to this RFI are not considered offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. This RFI is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government, nor will the Government pay for the information submitted in response. Respondents will not be notified of the results of any Government assessments. The information received will be utilized to assist in formulating the acquisition strategy. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. Responders are advised that the Government will not pay for any information or administrative cost incurred in response to this announcement and information submitted in response to this RFI will not be returned. The information obtained through this RFI is to obtain market information and capabilities. Responses will assist the Government in determining potential responsible sources and to determine appropriate strategies to meet the Agency's requirements. If HQ USSOCOM decides to conduct procurement as a result of your submissions, a separate pre-award synopsis of that procurement will be posted to Beta.SAM. United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has a requirement for a Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) software solution, to be used as a prototype for use of understanding the information environment that can detect misinformation, disinformation and mal-information campaigns in near to real-time to directly support information operations within Special Operations Command. The resulting analysis will be surfaced on a user interface and contextualized by the relevant narratives and network of accounts. This software must leverage an intuitive cloud-hosted user interface software which provides processing and analyzing multi-modal social media and web data and has the programmatic ability to dissect and categorize information sectors. The government requires a prototype data pipeline that will identify viral and trending content for threat assessments and score data with a ranking system that highlights the likelihood of being fake or deceptive and display the information on the user interface. The prototype will use a combination of deep learning, natural language processing, and dynamic network analysis to detect and examine the cross-platform spread of disinformation (in the form of images, video, and text) over vast and disparate data sources and inform teams of information which is intended to be deceptive. The vendor must address anomaly detection, deep fake, foreign influence and anticipatory analytics, leveraging deep learning, natural language processing, and proven machine learning development and capabilities. The resulting analysis will be surfaced on a user interface and contextualized by the relevant narratives and network of accounts. The system is designed to improve over time by incorporating user feedback and adapt to the rapidly changing tactics of an adversary. The vendor must use network graph analysis to narrow focus to a relatively small target subset, which will result in a reduced computational load for the deep fake detectors. The analysis will be required to incorporate analyst feedback for a human-in-loop pattern to improve the models over time, leveraging supervised machine learning. In addition, because the analysis will include not only the original content but also the fuller network context, the developed prototype is expected to deliver a much richer and nuanced set of results to better understand and identify misinformation/disinformation across the information environment. REQUESTED INFORMATION - DO NOT SEND COMPANY BROCHURE 1. Capability Statement: Request you submit a Capability Statement that presents your technical capability for providing the support services as it relates to the above subject requirement. Capability Statements shall be limited to 10 pages, single spaced, 12-point font, with at least one-inch margins in Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat format. Capability Statements shall be submitted by e-mail to the POCs identified below. The file size shall not exceed a 5 MB e-mail limit for all items submitted in response to this RFI. Capability Statement shall at the minimum answer the specific questions identified below to identify the technical approach to meet the Governments requirement as follows: a. Describe how your company can meet the above requirement. b. Describe how your company can service all the various areas to the above paragraphs. c. Describe other contracts that your company has provided this type of service that is relevant. d. Provide a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) for service for period of performance on this type of work and confirm that this work can be performed as a Firm Fixed Price Quote. e. Provide any additional information that is relevant to this RFI. **References to vendor Web pages will not be accepted. The Government will not entertain any questions at this time. Please note the submissions will not be returned. 2. Questions: Any questions regarding this RFI shall be submitted in writing by e-mail to the POCs identified below. Verbal questions will not be accepted. The Government may publish responses to all questions. Questions shall be submitted no later than 19 December 2019 1200EST. 3. Submission Instructions: Companies shall include a Cover Page with the following information: Company name, mailing address, CAGE code, DUNS identification number, Point of Contact (POC), to include telephone number and email address. Identify your business size status. If you are under the 8(a) program, please identify when you will graduate from the program. Any available existing contract vehicles (e.g. GSA Schedule, GWACs, etc.), as well as the contract numbers. 4. Responses: Responses must be unclassified and any proprietary information provided must be marked accordingly. To protect such data, each page containing such data must be specifically identified and marked with a legend similar to the following: - The following contains proprietary information that (name of Responder) requests not be released to persons outside the Government, except for the purposes of review and evaluation. Submit responses via e-mail to Christie.r.orlando.civ@socom.mil & Claire.w.morton.civ@socom.mil NLT COB 13 January 2020, 1200EST. This request for Sources Sought is for planning purposes only and shall not be considered an invitation for bid, request for quotation, request for proposal, or obligation on the part of the U.S. Government to acquire any products or material. Contracting Office Address: 7701 Tampa Point Blvd MacDill AFB, Florida 33621-5323 Place of Performance: Tampa, Florida Primary Point of Contact: Christie R. Orlando; Contract Specialist Claire W. Morton; Contract Specialist HQ US Special Operations Command Christie.r.orlando.civ@socom.mil; Claire.w.morton.civ@socom.mil Phone: (813) 826-6101