Days before Russian bombs began to rain down on Kharkiv, Mariupol and Kyiv, the Ukrainian government mobilized its communication strategists — knowing the coming war would be fought as much on social media as in the field.
Once the war had started, they were ready to strike.
Led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a former comedian with a flair for drama, Ukraine’s information warriors launched an all-out information offensive of unprecedented breadth and intensity.
From selfie-style videos of Zelenskyy proving he is alive and well in Kyiv to the footage of bombed-out Russian convoys and Ukrainian soldiers recording threats to the enemy, the campaign has ensured that the invasion of Ukraine and the resistance of its inhabitants are being followed around the world.
In the fog of war, the accuracy of social media posts and statements is hard to verify. A viral story about Ukrainian soldiers who told a Russian warship to “go f*ck yourself” before being wiped out turned out to be not quite true, as the soldiers were found to have survived.
But Ukraine is capturing the world’s attention — and knocking off balance an adversary that is known as a world champion of disinformation.
Ukraine’s ‘online tribe’
When war became inevitable, Ukrainians were ready to inundate social media with streams of posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, in addition to a concerted effort to reach out to the West through messaging services, such as WhatsApp.
The platform Telegram, meanwhile, has been used to recruit experts who can help in the country’s digital campaign. Dubbed the IT Army of Ukraine and set up by the Ukrainian government, this group probes the information space for volunteers who can help edit video, create cryptographic products, or coordinate cyberattacks on Russian corporates and public bodies.
“Ukraine is building an online tribe, it’s bringing people with them on this perilous journey,” said Matt Navarra, a social media consultant and former U.K. government communications expert. “It is helping people to really empathize and understand what the situation is like.”
Last Thursday, Western journalists were added to official WhatsApp groups, including one operated by Ukraine’s Derzhspetszviazok, the state special communications service. Journalists in this group are supplied with official videos taken from Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, and directed, in real-time, to social media updates on Facebook and Twitter. The videos in particular soon find their way to the social media profiles of some of the world’s largest news organizations.
“Ukraine is choosing its moments very carefully when to activate and amplify key messages using its social channels, as well as the formats — whether it be videos, selfies with the president, or memes,” Navarra said. “That, for me, is what’s really working very well for them.”
One Ukrainian government official who spoke to POLITICO on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the strategy said that their social media campaigns have been “huge” and that they attempt to cover networks across Ukraine, Russia and the whole of Europe.
“We are working nonstop,” the official said. “It’s exhausting, but we are seeing our efforts pay off. The West is listening to our messages and the sanctions against Russia are increasing daily.”
A new global diplomacy and Big Tech appeals
For senior government officials, including the president, there has been a meteoric rise in their online popularity during the crisis.
On Twitter, Zelenskyy has gone from half a million followers before the invasion to currently 4.3 million. His feed is a collage of diplomatic efforts, thanking Western leaders for their offers to help as well as giving updates to citizens on engagements with heads of state.
Ukraine’s digital minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, who has gone from 2,000 followers to more than 160,000, focuses on pressing some of the world’s greatest economic powers — the Big Tech platforms — to help fight the information war and stifle the spread of malicious content. One of his latest and more creative attempts has been to write to Apple and Spotify leaders, urging them to allow artists to change their album covers to show solidarity with Ukraine’s plight.
One recent tweet from Fedorov to SpaceX founder Elon Musk paid dividends, with the business magnate responding to his appeal by shipping Starlink satellite internet terminals for the war-torn country to stay connected.
Messages of war, hope and tragedy
The official Ukraine Twitter profile plays more of a down-to-earth role, pushing out memes and messages of individual heroism or manufacturing war hero-type characters, such as the “Ghost of Kyiv” — a Ukrainian air force operative who “dominates the skies … [becoming] a nightmare for invading Russian aircraft.”
But it’s on Instagram where the Ukrainian president has the widest reach, collecting more than 13 million followers. Publishing almost 80 posts since Kyiv was first bombed on Thursday, Zelenskyy’s account mixes English- and Ukrainian-language posts that regularly rack up more than 1 million likes — clipping quotes from his latest press briefings in addition to professionally coordinated photo ops, such as one recent example of the president and Ukrainian officials signing an application for the country’s accession to the EU.
Ukraine’s official account complements these with highly emotive posts designed for the international public, regularly showing civilian infrastructure destroyed by Russian shellings and appeals from children and pensioners. “The objective here is to show the world what we are going through,” one official said. “That we are facing the reality of a human[itarian] crisis.”
Rallying the home front
On Facebook, the Ukrainian approach targets more of a domestic audience. Zelenskyy’s account is particularly active, posting more than five videos a day on average since the war broke — many of them clips from briefings meant to update Ukrainians and keep morale high.
Other Cabinet ministers appear to take similar approaches, with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba creating posts to boost morale, ranging from personalized updates with live videos to flashy infographics.
This complements the government’s YouTube coverage, where the “Office of the President” account regularly posts carefully chosen clips from Zelenskyy’s and other ministers’ press briefings — rapidly garnering tens of thousands of views.
The war has been kind to Ukraine’s online profile. The more the West clamps down on the Kremlin’s presence across Western social media networks, the greater success the country has in substantiating a coherent narrative surrounding the reality of war.
Running counter to this is Russia’s strategizing in the information space, which has proved to be woefully inadequate.
“Russia’s very conservative, old-fashioned, dry, and almost corporate way of using the social channels is not working at all,” Navarra said. “The world sees them as the enemy.”
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https://ift.tt/GjYMa6c March 02, 2022 at 03:53AM
Samuel Stolton, Victor Jack