Witnessing the Role of Social Media During the Russia-Ukraine War

Social media during the Russia-Ukraine war have systematically cultivated fear, anxiety, and hate among the people 

Social media during the Russia-Ukraine war has become home to intense conflict-related information updates, impassioned arguments, and debates. The social media space has been abused, and pro-Russian forces have given the world a masterclass. At the beginning of the conflict, we saw strategic communications in action. Over Twitter and YouTube, unknown attackers released an intercepted phone conversation between the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine. 

In one stroke, the perpetrators sought to discredit Western policy and to announce their access to Western lines of government communication. Thus we saw both a technical exploit on an information

system and a psychological attack on the West via social media. During the conflict, Russia's narrative has been tightly scripted and disseminated, both on traditional media (in 'breaking' and 'eyewitness' accounts on television) and in cyberspace via social media. These venues are mutually reinforcing, encompassing older and younger readers with varying degrees of access to technology. For example, one can no longer watch Ukrainian television in eastern Ukraine; similarly, Russian television channels are no longer available in western Ukraine.

Unlike similar incidents in times past, this battle is playing out in the age of social media, with memes, misinformation campaigns, and scams all adding to the growing maelstrom of information, which can confuse, contort and cloud what's happening in the eastern European region. Given this, and the role that social media now plays in the dissemination of information, the platforms need to work fast to limit any misuse of their networks for questionable purposes, and many have already enacted plans to mitigate certain elements of misuse and misinformation.

On social media, pro-Russian voices have systematically cultivated fear, anxiety, and hate among the ethnically Russian (and other non-Ukrainian populations) of Ukraine. They have manipulated and distributed images of purported atrocities by the Ukrainian army, including mass graves of tortured people, civilians used for organ trafficking, burning crops to create a famine, recruiting child soldiers, the use of heavy weapons against civilians, and acts of cannibalism. 

Via social media, such information, whether offered with some evidence or merely in the form of rumors, often crisscrosses the globe in minutes and a well-organized social media campaign can easily influence a target population's perceptions and behaviors.