how the war is told on social networks

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Before the war in Ukraine, on her TikTok account, Valeria posted videos of evenings with friends or fashion shoots. Today, the young photographer recounts her daily life in Chernihiv, in the windowless bunker where she took refuge with her family.

Quirky music, humorous texts, emoticons… It is with the codes of her generation that Valeria shows how she eats or how she washes. She films herself at the supermarket between the empty shelves, in the streets of her neighborhood destroyed by the bombings, when the alarms sound. One of his latest videos has 28 million views. Valéria has become one of the faces of the war, interviewed by the BBC and CNN.

“Many people write to me to thank meshe says. They thank me for showing what’s really happening… And it’s my mission, in fact, to show the whole world this war, to make it visible on TikTok”. The use of social networks is not new, we saw it during the Arab Spring or in Syria, the difference today is that the war there has almost become a subject like any other. And many influencers document it in exactly the same way they post makeup tutorials or tell their uneventful lives.

A Ukrainian soldier, Alex Hook, based in the Donbass, already published a lot before the war, he continued once mobilized…

@ alexhook2303 # # # топ # рек # украинатикток # славаукраїні # Армия # Оос # Война # ♬ Оригинальный звук – Директор Олег

“Knowing that death is near is a luxuryhe said, not a curse. The enemy is strong, we are small, but we have chosen our path“. On TikTok we also see him with four other soldiers and all their equipment, camouflage, helmets, bulletproof vest and rifle, dancing on Nirvana or preparing to go into battle. His goal is not to document the conflict but to highlight the courage and optimism of its fighters.

Same goal for Miss Ukraine 2015, who has put aside her princess dresses and shows herself today in trellis, weapon in hand on her Instagram account to call on her compatriots to defend their country. We can also mention the singer of the group Boombox, one of the most popular in Ukraine, who abandoned his tour in the United States to return to fight.

This image war is also widely supported, inspired by the Ukrainian president. Whether it is to address his people or challenge the international community, almost every day Volodymyr Zelensky broadcasts a message on the internet.

His Twitter account went from 300,000 to five million subscribers in a matter of days. The former actor appears in selfie mode, often on the ground, in a khaki t-shirt, to show that he is resisting the Russian invasion. We are a thousand miles from the very frozen and almost martial videos of Vladimir Putin. The Russians may have mastered online disinformation with their armies of trolls, today in this field, they seem to be a war behind.


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