Kit Klarenberg - From Memes to Doxxing: Unmasking NATO's Information Warfare Strategy
Posted by sashimi on March 1, 2024, 8:13 pm
29 Feb 2024
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.
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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/
Re: Kit Klarenberg - From Memes to Doxxing: Unmasking NATO's Information Warfare Strategy