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Ukraine: memes and missiles With the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine last week, the conflict naturally moved to social networks. It is not the first online war, nor is it the most innovative. But because they are two European countries, their content has been magnified in all news and social spaces.
Wow that has been interesting. In what is known as trolling, the official accounts of Twitter Ukraine and the US embassy in that country have taken the first steps in this information conflict.
Ukraine tweeted an image of Hitler beside Putin and said that it only represented reality; the embassy a meme regarding the history of the Ukrainian capital to respond to the Russian president, who disregards the entire country as independent.
And since in Eastern Europe people are used to recording their interactions with authorities, we have seen a Ukrainian lady tell Russian soldiers to put sunflowers – the national flower of Ukraine – in the bags, so that when they fall they pay something to the earth what they step on Also to a civilian in front of another group of soldiers next to a tank without gasoline: between laughter –and with great courage– he offers them a tow truck to return them to their country.
We also know the story of the soldiers who had to defend an island once morest the Russian navy, and we saw their cries of defense as their last words. At first the news gave them for dead; luckily it was confirmed later that they had not died.
What to say, also regarding the image of the president Zelenski. Once an actor and comedian, his histrionic gifts have been discovered by the rest of the world. It turns out that the president was the voice of Paddington the bear in the Ukrainian version of him; he also participated in the local version of Dancing for a Dream. All this has added positively to the image of a country that few knew regarding until last week – although network users presume otherwise.
On the Russian side, on the other hand, whose computer skills had been presumed, especially in terms of interference in other countries – think of the 2016 presidential election in the United States – the spark that their counterparts have has not been seen. We have seen official embassy accounts get into fights with civilians – even here. A harsh tone, opposite to that of the Ukrainians.
It is clear who has the hand in the confrontation in the networks.
But let’s not leave out something fundamental: yes, we are talking regarding memes, and yes, memes are information. In the media, in industry, in marketing, memes are essential in our time. Even so, talking regarding them can make us forget the crucial thing: we are seeing a war in real time. Images of how the Russian columns advance towards Kiev, images of fallen soldiers. Of battered buildings. Of memorials – like one that remembers the Holocaust – destroyed. Death and destruction within reach of our data plan.
The immediacy in war can us, as General von Clausewitz, cloud Just as we see information and understand something of what happens through networks, we also have to understand that online warfare necessarily involves manipulation: information has an objective and is not always objective; it has an end. There are those who seek to misinform, there are those who do not do their job and take for granted something that is not. Confusion is the triumph of some.
Watching the war online is interesting and necessary. Understand your deployment channels as well.
But let’s remember that behind the memes and the influence there is an armed conflict where people die in a cruel and unnecessary way.
Welcome to the 21st century: memes and missiles.
The opinions expressed in this text are the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the point of view of your employer.
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