A Ukraine-Russia War is playing out on social media. These 5 points will explain how
Today is Day 6 of the Ukraine-Russia war. Many visuals from the war zone are making the rounds on social media.
The rest of the world has eyes on all the updates from Ukraine, but there is another cyber war going on.
Looks like Russia did not prepare well for this social media war. The following points will tell you how.
1. ZELENSKYY, THE SOCIAL MEDIA HERO
Ukraine's official Instagram handle has been posting about the war situation since the beginning of the conflict... through memes. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is already a hero on social media.
Zelenskyy has been in touch with his fellow citizens through videos and posts on social media.
This is his recent video on Ukraine:
Не вірте фейкам. pic.twitter.com/wiLqmCuz1p
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 26, 2022
2. RUSSIA'S OVERLOOKED AREA
Social Media, which the Russians overlooked, has been bombarded with posts against war and Putin. People from Russia, celebrities and influencers are also a part of this.
Dr Ian Garner, a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures, has shared on Twitter in a long thread that Yury Dud, a Russion blogger with 5 million followers, has also posted against the war, as have other YouTubers and influencers.
Here's a voice from Ukraine. Travel YouTuber Anton Ptushkin, a Russian speaker with *5.5 million* subscribers, posted this heartfelt appeal for peace & frank discussion of fears about his family on his IG. Here's a version from YouTube for ease of viewing. https://t.co/ucmSfzsd2r
— Dr. Ian Garner (@irgarner) February 28, 2022
He also classified the social media activities on the war into three different categories and those are:
a) People who don’t speak about the war
On ordinary people's VK feeds, I'm seeing three things: (1) Total indifference/absence of mentions of the war is conspicuous almost everywhere you look. Whether people are afraid to post about the war publicly (to some extent possible) or not, we don't know.
— Dr. Ian Garner (@irgarner) February 28, 2022
b) People critcising the war
(2) Mild criticism of the war, sharing of broken heart emojis, etc. This isn't too widespread, so I don't want to over egg it, but it's important. Anti-war sentiment is there, and you're seeing some of it on the streets.
— Dr. Ian Garner (@irgarner) February 28, 2022
c) People talking about the financial consequences of the war
(3) This is probably the most important point. I'm seeing plenty of sharing about bank runs, ATM dashes, inflating prices, and availability of consumer goods. People in the Far East, where food prices are already sky high, aren't quite panicking, but they're not exactly happy.
— Dr. Ian Garner (@irgarner) February 28, 2022
3. ANOTHER SOCIAL MEDIA ATTACK ON RUSSIA
In late February, Ukraine's verified accounts started a trend on Twitter. They want Twitter to ban the official account of Russia.
hey people, let’s demand @Twitter to remove @Russia from hereno place for an aggressor like Russia on Western social media platformsthey should not be allowed to use these platforms to promote their image while brutally killing the Ukrainian people @TwitterSupport
— Ukraine / Україна (@Ukraine) February 24, 2022
4. RUSSIA AND THE INTERNET
Well, seems like the social media war is going miserably wrong for Russia.
Big platforms are standing against Russia: Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.
FACEBOOK: The Russian authorities asked Meta to stop independent fact-checking and labelling of content on Facebook posted by four media organisations owned by Russian states.
Meta refused to do so. Therefore, Russia has restricted the use of Meta services in the country.
GOOGLE: Advertisements on Google are major revenue-generating medium online. In Russian, Google has paused its ad services enabling them to make any profit from Google ads.
YOUTUBE: Similarly, YouTube has blocked state-sponsored ads from Russian channels. Ukraine has also requested YouTube to stop video recommendation from Russian channels in Ukraine.
YouTube has limited video recommendation to Russian channels and has completely blocked them in Ukraine.
On Ukraine’s request, Russia Today app (RT app), which is a news network, has also been banned in Ukraine.
WHAT ABOUT TWITTER?
Just like Facebook, the Russian government has also restricted Twitter activities.
5. THE TIKTOK WAR
The Chinese app TikTok, which is banned in India, is majorly being used as a medium of spreading messages during wartime.
Many have also called this invasion a TikTok war.
According to a Reuters report, many TikTok influencers are sharing videos from the battlefield. They have shared videos of themselves wrapped in blankets in underground bunkers, army tanks in the streets, and so on.
They have also urged the people of Russia to stand against the war.
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to TikTokers as a group that could help end the war, in a speech directed at Russian citizens,” Reuters mentions. And this is exactly what many TikTokers did next.
Following this, Alina Volik, a travel blogger from Ukriane has also taken a break from posting usual content and uploaded videos of life in the invasion, of emergency backpacks filled with first aid supplies and of sealed windows. Volik also posted an Instagram story urging the people to watch the video saying "see the truth".
Another TikTok influencer @Zaluznik from Ukraine with 2 million followers has also posted content with caption, “Russians open your eyes!” She has also shared such posts on Instagram.
Since every action has a reaction, influencers from Russia also joined in. One such influencer named Niki Proshin also mentioned, “Normal people in Russia do not support the war.”
View this post on Instagram
As mentioned in the beginning, other than the battle on the field, Russia should have prepared for this social media war which is getting messier day by day.