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

İngilizce (OpenAlex)

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.