Russia-Ukraine: disinformation, propaganda, and wars of influence, the other battlefield
Social networks are regularly criticized and accused of allowing themselves to be exploited by movements, parties or governments that use their platforms to manipulate public opinion.
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Text by: Dominique Desaunay Follow
3 mins
Pro-Russian groups orchestrate various disinformation campaigns on social media using fake profiles or hacked accounts to portray Ukraine as a mere pawn in Western hands.
But the major American and European web companies have decided to go on the counter-offensive in order to purge this avalanche of false information from their platforms.
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Major social networks have taken steps to restrict the dissemination of Russian state media messages and any form of propaganda from pro-Putin online influencer groups.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has announced that it has dismantled a large-scale pro-Russian disinformation operation, which used fake Facebook accounts to try to massively disseminate anti-Ukraine articles.
Tech giants mobilized to confront Russian propaganda
The firm says it has set up a special operations center made up of “experts”, including native Russian and Ukrainian speakers, to monitor its platform in real time.
But the actions to coerce Putin's trolls into stopping their war for influence don't just stop at Facebook pages.
The “single-view media” feature has also been enabled on WhatsApp to allow users of encrypted messaging to send photos or videos from Ukraine that disappear after being viewed confidentially by their recipients.
In addition, the "ephemeral messages" function of WhatsApp is activated by default for Ukrainian subscribers, new chats will then be deleted automatically after 24 hours.
In her blog post, Meta clarified that she is blocking Russian state media from advertising and making money on her entire platform.
Twitter announces the interruption of pro-Russian online advertisements broadcast in Europe and announces that its platform is strengthening its moderation and control of propaganda tweets.
Google on its YouTube video platform has blocked the Sputnik channel in Russian and the web giant no longer allows the Russia Today application to be downloaded on mobiles.
The firm has also deactivated certain geolocation data on Google Maps in Ukraine to protect the movements of the population, and incidentally the movements of Ukrainian troops in the country.
This war of information and images by interposed networks is also spreading on the African continent, as indicated by Franck Kié, commissioner general of the Cyber Africa Forum in Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire.
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These events are of particular interest to Africa as social networks have been broadcasting in recent days and in recent hours the testimonies of nationals of African countries who were trying to leave Ukraine were blocked at the Polish border.
This news sparked a wave of indignation from African netizens.
Because let us remember that today we live in an interconnected world and what is happening in Europe inevitably has repercussions on the continent, particularly in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea or even the Central African Republic, countries which have recently become closer of Russia than of their traditional Western partners.
And we can see that a Russian sphere of influence is taking shape on the continent,
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“We are not allowed, any black person, to enter through the barrier.
Only Ukrainians are allowed”.
African expatriates in Ukraine who try to flee the war denounce the treatment reserved for them.
#AfricansinUkraine pic.twitter.com/B5WVwQmFnG
— AJ+ French (@ajplusfrancais) February 27, 2022
Russia too
On the one hand, Russian propaganda media have been banned by the European Union, on the other, platforms from Twitter to Facebook via Google have been muzzled by Moscow.
But another digital war is spreading in Europe, that of a cyberattack against telecom infrastructure.
And it has already started!
One hour after Vladimir Putin's speech announcing the ground offensive on Ukraine, the ViaSat satellite network, covering in particular Europe, including Ukraine and providing internet connection for tens of thousands of people, was the first victim of this network war, which has just begun.
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To read also: Ukraine launches a site to help the Russians find soldiers killed or captured
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