The U.S. government is losing a race in cyberspace — a social-networking race for the hearts and minds of the Internet community, a computer security expert said Wednesday.

Other countries — and many companies — are using social-networking tools to their advantage, while the U.S. government has taken tiny steps forward, said Rand Waltzman, a program manager focused on cybersecurity at the U.S.Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The Chinese government pays citizens to patrol social-networking sites and dispute negative talk about all levels of government or any aspect of Chinese life, and companies such as Dell and Best Buy are training workers to respond to complaints on Facebook and other social-networking services, Waltzman said at the Suits and Spooks security conference in Arlington, Virginia.

U.S. regulations prevent the government from undertaking similar campaigns, he said. “Any time you want to go to the bathroom, you need presidential approval,” he said.

The U.S. will not be able to protect its residents if it cannot engage in its own covert social-media operations, Waltzman said.

Waltzman told about a U.S. special forces unit in Iraq in 2009 that attacked an insurgent paramilitary group, killed 16 of the members of the group and seized a “huge” weapons cache. As soon as the U.S. unit left the scene, the Iraqi group returned, put the bodies on prayer mats, and uploaded a photograph from a cheap mobile phone, he said. The group put out a press release in English and Arabic.

The insurgent group “made it look like someone had come in and murdered these guys in the middle of prayer, unarmed,” Waltzman said.

Meanwhile, it took the U.S. soldiers three days to get approval to post their video of the fighting, he added. “In social media time, three days is forever,” he said. “The damage has already been done, and there’s no way to take it back.”

U.S. politicians seem to be conflicted about using social media covertly, Waltzman said. Some denounce China for its social-media propaganda efforts, yet there are several examples in the 2010 congressional election campaigns of astroturfing, of using fake grassroots campaigns to support candidates, he said.