Countries such as China and Belarus have engaged in efforts to portray the conflict on their own terms, and they have launched coordinated disinformation campaigns on social media platforms. Ukraine and Russia are not the only state actors interested and engaged in portraying the war on their own terms. In contrast, Ukraine’s narrative insists the war is one of aggression, emphasizes its history as a sovereign nation distinct from Russia, and portrays its citizens and armed forces as heroes defending themselves from an unjustified invasion. Putin also frames the military campaign as necessary to “ de-nazify” Ukraine and end a purported genocide being conducted be the Ukrainian government against Russian speakers. Russia frames the war in Ukraine, which Putin insists is a “special military operation,” as a necessary defensive measure in response to NATO expansion into Eastern Europe. For instance, in just the first week of the war, videos from a range of sources on TikTok with the tag #Russia and #Ukraine had amassed 37.2 billion and 8.5 billion views, respectively.Īt their core, the narratives presented by Russia and Ukraine are diametrically opposed. It is difficult to pinpoint the exact amount of content uploaded by these various actors, but the scale of information being uploaded on social media about the war is immense. Government officials, individual citizens, and state agencies and have all turned to an array of platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, and Telegram, to upload information. Russia and Ukraine both use social media extensively to portray their versions of the events unfolding, and amplify contrasting narratives about the war, including its causes, consequences, and continuation. The Role of Social Media and National Disinformation Campaigns The role of social media companies and government policies on limiting disinformation.The role of artificial intelligence (AI) in promoting, and potentially combating, disinformation and,.How social media platforms are being leveraged to spread competing national narratives and disinformation.To that end, this FP Analytics brief uncovers three critical components: Strategic propaganda campaigns, including those peddling disinformation, are by no means new during warfare, but the shift toward social media as the primary distribution channel is transforming how information warfare is waged, as well as who can participate in ongoing conversations to shape emerging narratives.Įxamining the underlying dynamics of how information and disinformation are impacting the war in Ukraine is crucial to making sense of, and working toward, solutions to the current conflict.

As the war drags on, these digital ecosystems have become inundated with disinformation. In the lead-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and throughout the ongoing conflict, social media has served as a battleground for states and non-state actors to spread competing narratives about the war and portray the ongoing conflict in their own terms.

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