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The Information Warfare Role of Social Media: Fake News in the Russia - Ukraine War

Year 2022, Special Issue for 5th Cultural Informatics, Communication & Media Studies Conference, 75 - 92, 28.10.2022
https://doi.org/10.17680/erciyesiletisim.1137903

Abstract

It is known that information activities concerning the agenda are carried out on many media tools, especially social media, in cases of interstate crisis, conflict, and war. However, unlike traditional media, subjective evaluations on social media platforms can spread suddenly without being verified. This situation causes fake news to spread, and many people even show a reflex to believe it. This research deals with the fake news of the Russia-Ukraine war that broke out at the beginning of 2022; 125 fake contents analyzed by Teyit, Dogrula, Dogruluk Payı, and Malumatfuruş sites were taken as a sample. In this study, which aims to reveal the extent to which social media platforms pave the way for information wars, it has been determined that fake content is shared on many media tools, including online news sites, YouTube, and, in particular, Twitter. It has been determined that almost half of this content was shared in the first week of the war, and montage and editing techniques were frequently applied to the content. The study also brings up the establishment of an official communication network in accordance with the 24/7 working conditions to confirm fake news.

References

  • Allcott, H., & Gentzkow, M. (2017). Social media and fake news in the 2016 election. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 31(2), 211-236.
  • Binark, M. (2010). Nefret söyleminin yeni medya ortamında dolaşıma girmesi ve türetilmesi. In T. Çomu (Ed.), Yeni medyada nefret söylemi (pp. 11-55). İstanbul: Kalkedon.
  • Burkhardt, J. M. (2017). History of fake news. Library Technology Reports, 53(8), 5-9.
  • Bushwick, S. (2022, March 8). Russia’s information war is being waged on social media platforms. Retrieved June 23, 2022, from Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/russia-is-having-less-success-at-spreading-social-media-disinformation/
  • Callamari, P., & Reveroni, D. (2003). China's use of perception management. International Journal of Intelligence and Counter Intelligence, 16(1), 1-15.
  • Chen, A. (2017, August 28). The fake news fallacy: Old fights about radio have lessons for new fights about the internet. Retrieved April 24, 2022, from The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/09/04/the-fake-news-fallacy?utm_content=bufferfc8ed%26utm_medium=social%26utm_source=twitter.com%26utm_campaign=buffer
  • Clark, W. K. (2004). Winning modern wars, Iraq, terrorism and the American Empire. New York: Public Affairs.
  • Cohen, R. (2022, March 1). A surge of unifying moral outrage over Russia's war. Retrieved May 17, 2022, from The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/01/world/europe/zelensky-ukraine-war-outrage.html
  • Cumhurbaşkanlığı İletişim Başkanlığı. (2021, Şubat). Cumhurbaşkanlığı İletişim Başkanlığı, yeni nesil doğrulama platformu hazırladı. Retrieved Mayıs 1, 2022, from https://www.iletisim.gov.tr/turkce/yerel_basin/detay/cumhurbaskanligi-iletisim-baskanligi-yeni-nesil-dogrulama-platformu-hazirladi
  • Darıcılı, A., & Özdal, B. (2017). Enformasyon savaşı bağlamında Rusya Federasyonu-Türkiye ilişkilerinin analizi. İGÜ Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 4(1), 19-40. doi:10.17336/igusbd.305525
  • Denning, D. E. (1999). Information warfare and security. New York: Addison-Wesley.
  • Derman, G. S. (2021). Perception management in the media. International Journal of Social and Economic Sciences, 11(1), 64-78.
  • Doğrula.org. (2022). Retrieved Mayıs 29, 2022, from https://www.dogrula.org/?s=rusya+ukrayna
  • Doğrulukpayi.org. (2022). Retrieved Mayıs 25, 2022, from https://www.dogrulukpayi.com/
  • Elsbach, D. K. (1994). Managing organisational legitimacy in the California cattle industry: The construction and effectiveness of verbal acoounts. Administrative Science Quarterly, 39(1), 57-88.
  • Erol, S., & Ozan, E. (2014). Türk dış politikasında algı yönetimi. In B. Karabulut (Ed.), Algı yönetimi (pp. 185-209). İstanbul: Alfa.
  • Garfield, A. (2002). The offence of strategic influence: Making the case for perception management operations. Journal of Information Warfare, 1(3), 30-39.
  • Haq, E., Braud, T., Kwon, Y., & Hui, P. (2020). Enemy at the gate: Evolution of Twitter user's polarisation during national crisis. IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (pp. 212-216). Hague, December 7-10: IEEE. doi:10.1109/ASONAM49781.2020.9381296
  • Hartley, J. (1996). Popular reality: Journalism, modernity, popular culture. London: Arnold.
  • High, A., & Solomon, D. (2011). Locating computer-mediated social support within online communication environments. In K. Wright, & L. Webb (Eds.), Computer-mediated communication in personal relationships (pp. 119-136). New York: Peterlang.
  • IFCN. (2022). Verified signatories of the IFCN code of principles. Retrieved Mayıs 30, 2022, from https://ifcncodeofprinciples.poynter.org/signatories
  • Kasmarik , K., Hardhienata, M., Shafi, K., & Hu, J. (2016). A survey of game theoretic approaches to modelling decision-making in information warfare scenarios. Future Internet, 8(34), 1-29. doi:10.3390/fi8030034
  • Kavaklı, N. (2019). Yalan haberle mücadele ve internet. Erciyes İletişim Dergisi, 6(1), 663-682. doi:10.17680/erciyesiletisim.453398
  • Kershner, M. R. (2001, July). Army special forces' training focuses on unconventional warfare. Army Amagazine, 26, 1-15.
  • Kim, A., Moravec, P., & Dennis, A. (2019). Combating fake news on social media with source ratings: The effects of user and expert reputation. Journal of Management Information Systems, 36(3), 931-968.
  • Kiral, B. (2020). Nitel bir veri analizi yöntemi olarak doküman analizi. Siirt Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 8(15), 170-189.
  • Malumatfuruş.org. (2022). Retrieved Mayıs 30, 2022, from https://www.malumatfurus.org/?s=rusya+ukrayna
  • Military Factory. (2022). Definition of the term 'perception management ' per official documentation of the United States Department of Defense. Retrieved May 2, 2022, from https://www.militaryfactory.com/dictionary/military-terms-defined.php?term_id=4039
  • Mucchielli, A. (1991). Zihniyetler. (A. Kotil, Trans.) İstanbul: İletişim.
  • Newman, N., Fletcher, R., Schulz, A., Andi, S., Robertson, C., & Nielsen, R. (2020). Reuters institute digital news report 2020. London: Oxford Univeristy Press. Retrieved April 1, 2022, from https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:e2106591-07c7-4b0b-9e93-a0d06bb4b86a/download_file?safe_filename=Newman_et_al_2021_the_reuters_institute.pdf&file_format=pdf&type_of_work=Report
  • Özdağ, Ü. (2014). Algı yönetimi, propaganda, psikolojik savaş. Ankara: Kripto.
  • Pavlyshenko, B. (2022). Methods of informational trends analytics and fake news detection on Twitter. arXiv, 2204.04891, 1-22.
  • Peters, M. (2018). The information wars, fake news and the end of globalisation. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 50(13), 1161-1164. doi:10.1080/00131857.2017.1417200
  • Sak, R., Şahin Sak, İ., Şendil, Ç., & Nas, E. (2021). Bir araştırma yöntemi olarak doküman analizi. Kocaeli Üniversitesi Eğitim Dergisi, 4(1), 227-256. doi:10.33400/kuje.843306
  • Snegovaya, M. (2017). Putin's information warrfare in Ukraine: Soviet origins of Russia's hybrid warfare. Washington, DC: The Instıtute for the Study of War. Retrieved June 23, 2022, from understandingwar.org: www.understandingwar.org/report/putins-information-warfare-ukraine-soviet-origins-russias-hybrid-warfare
  • Sopilko, I., Swintsytsky, A., Padalka, A., & Lyseiuk, A. (2022). Information wars as a threat to the information security of Ukraine. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 39(3), 333-347. doi:10.1002/crq.21331
  • Stein, G. J. (1995). Information warfare. Airpower Journal, IX(1), 30-55.
  • Tam, M. S., & Kurtuluş, S. S. (2022). Rusya – Ukrayna savaşı hakkındaki youtuber videolarına izleyici tepkileri. Düşünce ve Toplum Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi(6), 26-47. doi:10.55796/dusuncevetoplum.1106229
  • Taş, O., & Taş, T. (2018). Post-hakikat çağında sosyal medyada yalan haber ve Suriyeli mülteciler sorunu. İleti-ş-im, 29. doi:10.16878/gsuilet.500943
  • Teyit.org. (2022). Retrieved Nisan 28, 2022, from https://teyit.org/detayli-arama?topic=rusya%20ukrayna&post_type=Analiz&start=1645056000&end=1650758400&sort=newest&page=1
  • Tunçer, S., & Tam, M. S. (2022). The COVID-19 infodemic: Misinformation about health on social media in Istanbul. Türkiye İletişim Araştırmaları Dergisi, 40, 340-358. doi:10.17829/turcom.1050696
  • Van Herpen, M. (2016). Putin's propaganda machine: Soft power and Russian foreign policy. London: Rowman & Littlefield.
  • Waisbord, S. (2018). Truth is what happens to news. Journalism Studies, 19(13), 1866-1878. doi:10.1080/1461670X.2018.1492881

Sosyal Medyanın Bilgi Savaşı Rolü: Rusya – Ukrayna Savaşında Sahte Haberler

Year 2022, Special Issue for 5th Cultural Informatics, Communication & Media Studies Conference, 75 - 92, 28.10.2022
https://doi.org/10.17680/erciyesiletisim.1137903

Abstract

Devletlerarası kriz, çatışma ve savaş hallerinde sosyal medya başta olmak üzere birçok medya araçlarında konuya ilişkin bilgilendirme faaliyetlerinin yapıldığı bilinmektedir. Fakat geleneksel medyadan farklı olarak sosyal medya platformlarında subjektif değerlendirmeler doğrulanmadan bir anda yayılabilmektedir. Bu durum sahte haberlerin (fake news) yayılmasına hatta pek çok insanın buna inanma refleksi göstermesine neden olmaktadır. 2022’nin hemen başında patlak veren Rusya – Ukrayna savaşındaki sahte paylaşımları konu edinen bu araştırmada; Teyit, Doğrula, Doğruluk Payı ve Malumatfuruş sitelerince analiz edilen 125 yalan/yanlış içerik örneklem olarak alınmıştır. Sosyal medya platformlarının bilgi savaşlarına ne derece zemin hazırladığını ortaya çıkartmayı amaçlayan bu çalışmada başta Twitter, online haber siteleri ve YouTube olmak üzere pek çok medya aracında sahte içeriklerin paylaşıldığı tespit edilmiştir. Yalan/yanlış içeriklerin neredeyse yarısının savaşın ilk haftasında paylaşıldığı ve içeriklere montaj ve kurgu tekniklerinin sıklıkla uygulandığı belirlenmiştir. Çalışmada, dezenformasyon teyidi için 7/24 çalışma koşuluna uygun olacak şekilde resmî bir iletişim ağının kurulması da gündeme getirilmiştir.

References

  • Allcott, H., & Gentzkow, M. (2017). Social media and fake news in the 2016 election. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 31(2), 211-236.
  • Binark, M. (2010). Nefret söyleminin yeni medya ortamında dolaşıma girmesi ve türetilmesi. In T. Çomu (Ed.), Yeni medyada nefret söylemi (pp. 11-55). İstanbul: Kalkedon.
  • Burkhardt, J. M. (2017). History of fake news. Library Technology Reports, 53(8), 5-9.
  • Bushwick, S. (2022, March 8). Russia’s information war is being waged on social media platforms. Retrieved June 23, 2022, from Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/russia-is-having-less-success-at-spreading-social-media-disinformation/
  • Callamari, P., & Reveroni, D. (2003). China's use of perception management. International Journal of Intelligence and Counter Intelligence, 16(1), 1-15.
  • Chen, A. (2017, August 28). The fake news fallacy: Old fights about radio have lessons for new fights about the internet. Retrieved April 24, 2022, from The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/09/04/the-fake-news-fallacy?utm_content=bufferfc8ed%26utm_medium=social%26utm_source=twitter.com%26utm_campaign=buffer
  • Clark, W. K. (2004). Winning modern wars, Iraq, terrorism and the American Empire. New York: Public Affairs.
  • Cohen, R. (2022, March 1). A surge of unifying moral outrage over Russia's war. Retrieved May 17, 2022, from The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/01/world/europe/zelensky-ukraine-war-outrage.html
  • Cumhurbaşkanlığı İletişim Başkanlığı. (2021, Şubat). Cumhurbaşkanlığı İletişim Başkanlığı, yeni nesil doğrulama platformu hazırladı. Retrieved Mayıs 1, 2022, from https://www.iletisim.gov.tr/turkce/yerel_basin/detay/cumhurbaskanligi-iletisim-baskanligi-yeni-nesil-dogrulama-platformu-hazirladi
  • Darıcılı, A., & Özdal, B. (2017). Enformasyon savaşı bağlamında Rusya Federasyonu-Türkiye ilişkilerinin analizi. İGÜ Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 4(1), 19-40. doi:10.17336/igusbd.305525
  • Denning, D. E. (1999). Information warfare and security. New York: Addison-Wesley.
  • Derman, G. S. (2021). Perception management in the media. International Journal of Social and Economic Sciences, 11(1), 64-78.
  • Doğrula.org. (2022). Retrieved Mayıs 29, 2022, from https://www.dogrula.org/?s=rusya+ukrayna
  • Doğrulukpayi.org. (2022). Retrieved Mayıs 25, 2022, from https://www.dogrulukpayi.com/
  • Elsbach, D. K. (1994). Managing organisational legitimacy in the California cattle industry: The construction and effectiveness of verbal acoounts. Administrative Science Quarterly, 39(1), 57-88.
  • Erol, S., & Ozan, E. (2014). Türk dış politikasında algı yönetimi. In B. Karabulut (Ed.), Algı yönetimi (pp. 185-209). İstanbul: Alfa.
  • Garfield, A. (2002). The offence of strategic influence: Making the case for perception management operations. Journal of Information Warfare, 1(3), 30-39.
  • Haq, E., Braud, T., Kwon, Y., & Hui, P. (2020). Enemy at the gate: Evolution of Twitter user's polarisation during national crisis. IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (pp. 212-216). Hague, December 7-10: IEEE. doi:10.1109/ASONAM49781.2020.9381296
  • Hartley, J. (1996). Popular reality: Journalism, modernity, popular culture. London: Arnold.
  • High, A., & Solomon, D. (2011). Locating computer-mediated social support within online communication environments. In K. Wright, & L. Webb (Eds.), Computer-mediated communication in personal relationships (pp. 119-136). New York: Peterlang.
  • IFCN. (2022). Verified signatories of the IFCN code of principles. Retrieved Mayıs 30, 2022, from https://ifcncodeofprinciples.poynter.org/signatories
  • Kasmarik , K., Hardhienata, M., Shafi, K., & Hu, J. (2016). A survey of game theoretic approaches to modelling decision-making in information warfare scenarios. Future Internet, 8(34), 1-29. doi:10.3390/fi8030034
  • Kavaklı, N. (2019). Yalan haberle mücadele ve internet. Erciyes İletişim Dergisi, 6(1), 663-682. doi:10.17680/erciyesiletisim.453398
  • Kershner, M. R. (2001, July). Army special forces' training focuses on unconventional warfare. Army Amagazine, 26, 1-15.
  • Kim, A., Moravec, P., & Dennis, A. (2019). Combating fake news on social media with source ratings: The effects of user and expert reputation. Journal of Management Information Systems, 36(3), 931-968.
  • Kiral, B. (2020). Nitel bir veri analizi yöntemi olarak doküman analizi. Siirt Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 8(15), 170-189.
  • Malumatfuruş.org. (2022). Retrieved Mayıs 30, 2022, from https://www.malumatfurus.org/?s=rusya+ukrayna
  • Military Factory. (2022). Definition of the term 'perception management ' per official documentation of the United States Department of Defense. Retrieved May 2, 2022, from https://www.militaryfactory.com/dictionary/military-terms-defined.php?term_id=4039
  • Mucchielli, A. (1991). Zihniyetler. (A. Kotil, Trans.) İstanbul: İletişim.
  • Newman, N., Fletcher, R., Schulz, A., Andi, S., Robertson, C., & Nielsen, R. (2020). Reuters institute digital news report 2020. London: Oxford Univeristy Press. Retrieved April 1, 2022, from https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:e2106591-07c7-4b0b-9e93-a0d06bb4b86a/download_file?safe_filename=Newman_et_al_2021_the_reuters_institute.pdf&file_format=pdf&type_of_work=Report
  • Özdağ, Ü. (2014). Algı yönetimi, propaganda, psikolojik savaş. Ankara: Kripto.
  • Pavlyshenko, B. (2022). Methods of informational trends analytics and fake news detection on Twitter. arXiv, 2204.04891, 1-22.
  • Peters, M. (2018). The information wars, fake news and the end of globalisation. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 50(13), 1161-1164. doi:10.1080/00131857.2017.1417200
  • Sak, R., Şahin Sak, İ., Şendil, Ç., & Nas, E. (2021). Bir araştırma yöntemi olarak doküman analizi. Kocaeli Üniversitesi Eğitim Dergisi, 4(1), 227-256. doi:10.33400/kuje.843306
  • Snegovaya, M. (2017). Putin's information warrfare in Ukraine: Soviet origins of Russia's hybrid warfare. Washington, DC: The Instıtute for the Study of War. Retrieved June 23, 2022, from understandingwar.org: www.understandingwar.org/report/putins-information-warfare-ukraine-soviet-origins-russias-hybrid-warfare
  • Sopilko, I., Swintsytsky, A., Padalka, A., & Lyseiuk, A. (2022). Information wars as a threat to the information security of Ukraine. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 39(3), 333-347. doi:10.1002/crq.21331
  • Stein, G. J. (1995). Information warfare. Airpower Journal, IX(1), 30-55.
  • Tam, M. S., & Kurtuluş, S. S. (2022). Rusya – Ukrayna savaşı hakkındaki youtuber videolarına izleyici tepkileri. Düşünce ve Toplum Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi(6), 26-47. doi:10.55796/dusuncevetoplum.1106229
  • Taş, O., & Taş, T. (2018). Post-hakikat çağında sosyal medyada yalan haber ve Suriyeli mülteciler sorunu. İleti-ş-im, 29. doi:10.16878/gsuilet.500943
  • Teyit.org. (2022). Retrieved Nisan 28, 2022, from https://teyit.org/detayli-arama?topic=rusya%20ukrayna&post_type=Analiz&start=1645056000&end=1650758400&sort=newest&page=1
  • Tunçer, S., & Tam, M. S. (2022). The COVID-19 infodemic: Misinformation about health on social media in Istanbul. Türkiye İletişim Araştırmaları Dergisi, 40, 340-358. doi:10.17829/turcom.1050696
  • Van Herpen, M. (2016). Putin's propaganda machine: Soft power and Russian foreign policy. London: Rowman & Littlefield.
  • Waisbord, S. (2018). Truth is what happens to news. Journalism Studies, 19(13), 1866-1878. doi:10.1080/1461670X.2018.1492881
There are 43 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Communication and Media Studies
Journal Section Presented Proceeedings
Authors

Kazım Babacan 0000-0002-7668-8601

Mehmet Sinan Tam 0000-0001-9897-0803

Publication Date October 28, 2022
Submission Date June 30, 2022
Published in Issue Year 2022 Special Issue for 5th Cultural Informatics, Communication & Media Studies Conference

Cite

APA Babacan, K., & Tam, M. S. (2022). The Information Warfare Role of Social Media: Fake News in the Russia - Ukraine War. Erciyes İletişim Dergisi(3), 75-92. https://doi.org/10.17680/erciyesiletisim.1137903