2021 has become the stage that saw a devastating event break out. It is about the war between Russia and the Ukraine; a warlike conflict that arose as a result of the invasion of the first to the territory of the second. Although the battle is raging thousands of miles from other parts of the world, social networks have achieved democratize access to the same.
Whereas before the planet relied on traditional news media to keep up to date on the state of the world; Platforms like Twitter and Facebook have helped everyone to access the latest details at any moment of the day.
Of course, something as powerful as up-to-date and limitless information transforms into a weapon during times of war. Civilians have achieved become social media; recording with their mobile devices the events throughout Ukraine.
Seeing the panorama, we cannot avoid asking ourselves, how have social networks influenced this new armed conflict? During these very difficult times for the inhabitants of the regions involved; How have these digital platforms assisted and how they have worked for the benefit -or to the detriment- of certain governments?
A post from Forbes evaluates the possibility that we are facing “the first war for social networks”. Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Users from all over the world have taken a position on this. From those who are close to the lines of fire, to those of us who are thousands of kilometers from the conflict. “The possibility of publishing updates, sharing videos, could assure us that the first casualty of this war is not the truth,” comments the aforementioned medium.
The past of wars
Many wars have been marked by the media through which they were broadcast. The Spanish-American War, for example, was cataloged as the first “media war”. The reason? Armed conflict and military actions between nations were precipitated by media involvement. Naturally, many of the articles published during this historic event were sensational; so they had to send correspondents directly to Cuba to clarify the details of the war.
From this media war, we go to the first “tv war“, with the conflict in Vietnam. The military actions that were carried out in the Asian country were covered on a large scale by television media; both in the United States and in the rest of the world. So much so, that by 1968 there were more than 600 accredited journalists covering the conflict in the North American country; distributed between radio and television networks.
By the 1990s, the Yugoslav wars could take the crown as the first “internet wars,” according to wired. The medium comments that the beginning of the conflict coincided with the mass internet adoption and the birth of online news outlets.” However, it was not until the 9/11 attacks that the full potential of the internet was seen to cover a conflict in real time.
It is understandable that nation-states want to control social networks during conflicts. In the past, nation-states had the upper hand in controlling the narrative of conflicts. Social media has changed all that. Furthermore, in the case of war, the use of social networks could even be interpreted as a form of guerrilla tactics.
Kent Bausman, professor of sociology at the University of Maryville
Goodbye editorial bureaucracy
These platforms have given way to a new war journalism. According BBCNews, “social networks have given both sides the possibility of informing the world immediately and without the need to go through newsrooms or editorial questions.” Thus, we have direct information, many times from the same sourceof easy exit and diffusion.
However, this same quality has a negative aspect. And since there is no editorial control of the information, the incidence of fake news is much higher. For this, Bausman comments in his report to Forbes that “the accuracy of such reports will continue to be problematic.”
There are already a number of social media posts claiming to document what is happening in Ukraine, only they have been proven to be untrue. The dangers of disinformation could unleash a tinderbox of conflict in the region, but its use to link information in real time and galvanize support may prove to be Putin’s Achilles’ heel.
Kent Bausman, professor of sociology at the University of Maryville
War not so new for information control
So, social networks not only have they affected how information arrives from Ukraine to the rest of the countries of the world. According to Mike Smith, associate professor of communications at La Salle University; the war for social networks has also urged Russia to take more drastic measures towards the Ukrainian population, including towards his own, he commented to the media KYW Newsradio.
The strength of social networks has led Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, to completely stop operation of some foreign social networks in your country. In his war for control of information flowing in and out of Russia, Putin has blocked access to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Leaving Russian citizens with only one alternative to information: government media.
Mr. Putin and his commanders became frustrated with the story that was coming out and began to resort to more forceful tactics to shut down the media, cut off access to social media in Russia, and to some extent in Ukraine, disrupting their computer technologies and becoming more brutal, and the tactics the military is using to suppress stories and people.
Mike Smith, Associate Professor of Communications at La Salle University
However, this has not stopped Russian citizens in their struggle to access diversified information. Some activists are using the Clubhouse platform as a news hub about Ukraine; a last bastion to decentralized information in a country that has been walled off by its own elite.
Little by little, Russia has come to realize that controlling information today It’s not as simple as in the 90’s. Previously, a government was able to limit or manipulate war reporting neutralizing radio and television towers. However, nowadays the only way out is a complete disconnection from the internet, but this would be quite a serious problem for the nation itself.
The curse of memes in a war for social networks
However, not all social media movements have focused on helping Ukrainian citizens during the war. Unlike other similar incidents in the past, Russia’s invasion of Ukrainian territory It is taking place in the middle of the era of memesmisinformation, scams, and many more.
Elements like humor can be beneficial to a society when it is in very dark times. They help process panic and pain. as comment ScoopEmpire: “If we didn’t laugh at the situation, the situation would break us.” However, there is a fine line between dealing with something and normalizing it. Initially, jokes about it might make it easier for us to swallow the pill; but when is enough? After all, there are pains that you need to feel in order to act against them. And, if we always “laugh at the situation”, we are not going to do anything to change it.
However, humor is a powerful tool for people to participate and are included. With this voluntary participation come several benefits, and that is that human beings tend to pay more attention to those things that please or attract us. This is why memes are an excellent tool to show supporters of the government of Russia the havoc caused by their interference in Ukraine, without making them feel attacked. This last position would lead them to close completely to change their minds, as terrible as they seem.
In fact, Jennifer Grygiel, an associate professor of communications at Syracuse University who also specializes in memes and social media; she has spoken with abcnews on this very topic. For her, these platforms have had a deep involvement during the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Grygiel said that one of the most important effects of Ukrainian social media and memes is to show the world how devastating Russian attacks are on people and cities. For many people around the world, this is the first time they have seen the atrocities of war in real time, Grygiel said.
abcnews
“There is something human in seeing who you are going to harm”, Grygiel commented along with other experts.