The information war

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones". Einstein couldn’t have guessed our weapon of choice would be memes. In the information age, wars are no longer solely won or lost on the battlefield. Nobody understands that better than Putin, who at the time of writing, is 4 days into invading Ukraine. Rather than aerial assault or artillery, he uses disinformation to lay the groundwork for invasion, as seen in Georgia in 2008, Crimea in 2014 and Syria in 2015. Accused by the State Department of weaponizing social media to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election, Russia is a disinformation super power.

So why does he seem to be losing? Ukraine’s president Zelenskyy, a former comedian, is lionised as an international hero, posting defiant speeches from the streets of the capital — “I don’t need a ride, I need ammo”. Regular Ukrainian citizens wielding Kalashnikovs fill social media timelines. In Russia thousands risk arrest in anti-war protests, and there are reports of Russian troop desertions. EU countries are openly arming Ukraine, a move unprecedented by decades of non-interventionist policy. The meme lord himself, Musk, has granted all of Ukraine free satellite internet.

Credit belongs to the Ukrainian people and their international supporters, but what makes this time different? The U.S. launched a memetic first strike. In warning the World that Putin planned to attack, they called attention to his illegitimate justifications, inoculating us from disinformation. His information bombardment failed to weaken public opposition, and Ukraine was passed the mic.

About the Book 📕

← Back to Essays 📝