In November 2023, NATO's "Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats"
published a disturbing 'working paper,' "Humour in online information warfare:
Case study on Russia's war on Ukraine." It received no mainstream
attention. Yet, the contents offer unprecedented insight into the military
alliance's insidious weaponization of social media to distort public perceptions
and manufacture consent for war. They also raise grave questions about online
"trolling" of dissident voices over the past decade and beyond.
The working paper ostensibly "considers instances of humour put to effective use
to counter disinformation and propaganda in online spaces, using Russia's war on
Ukraine." It concludes, "humour-based responses... in the information space and
in the physical domain have been found to deliver multiple clear benefits" for
Ukraine and NATO.
...
Throughout the working paper, axiomatic reference is made to how weaponizing
humor "imposes costs" on "adversaries" and "aggressors." Contradictorily,
though, it is conceded that "the direct impact on Russia itself is hard to
measure." Indeed, it seems implausible that Kremlin officials and Russian
soldiers on the frontline suffer any "costs" whatsoever from the mockery of
anonymous Western social media users. This begs the obvious questions of why
this approach is considered effective and who the true "adversaries" in NATO's
comedic crosshairs are.
-- Cont'd at https://www.mintpressnews.com/memes-doxxing-unmasking-nato-information-warfare/286944/
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