A few hours after the invasion of her country, a Ukrainian woman in a black jacket and a white cap copiously insults two armed Russian soldiers, filmed by a sidekick. “Occupiers”, “fascists!” A spectacular incarnation of the will of his people to impose themselves also on social networks.
“Take these seeds and put them in your pockets. That way, sunflowers will grow when you all rest here,” she quips. In its image, it is the information war that Ukraine, according to several analysts, dominates for the moment against Russia.
For eleven days, pro-Ukrainian content has flooded the web: a passerby tries to stop a Russian tank, locals scream with joy when helicopters presented as enemies crash. They mock the atomized tanks marked with the white “Z” of the invader, mock their corpses.
Unverifiable legends are mounted in pin. Like this Ukrainian pilot who allegedly shot down five, six or even ten enemy aircraft.
“In the first phase of the conflict, for international opinion, the Ukrainians are clearly ahead in information,” says Baptiste Robert, founder of Predicta lab, a French company fighting against disinformation. “On TikTok or Telegram, it’s crazy, it’s mad” to see the number of content hostile to Russians, opines Damien Bancal, cybersecurity researcher.
In recent days, however, as Russia has bombarded Ukrainian cities, sobs have supplanted bravado. “What is strongest is that it is organic”, analyzes Baptiste Robert. “There is a real desire among Ukrainians to document this war. When something happens, they pull out their phones.” The Ukrainian army also posts the damage inflicted on the enemy.
Organic
If the videos published “are rather legitimate”, according to Mr. Robert, some stories have been built on the wind, as demonstrated by the AFP fact-checking cell.
Thirteen Ukrainian border guards had been declared dead “as heroes” by Kiev after sending “fuck off” a Russian military boat that came to take the tiny islet they were defending. They were indeed “alive”, the Ukrainian authorities finally agreed, as Moscow had claimed from the start.
In Paris, the Ukrainian embassy denies any manipulation. “We do not produce fake news,” say his diplomats. Disinformation is a Russian weapon, which Moscow has been “refining” since 2014 and the capture of Crimea, they continue.
In 2016, his trolls were even accused of influencing the US presidential campaign. Their strategy is to “infiltrate discussion groups” to change their participants, deciphers Emily Harding, researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, an American think-tank.
A technique requiring time which they do not have in Ukraine. Especially since for having underestimated the Ukrainian resistance, Moscow completely failed to enter the war, according to Western military experts interviewed by AFP. The glorious tale that was to accompany his “special military operation” to liberate the country was invalidated by heavy casualties.
But “it is very difficult to counter the truth with lies,” observes Ms. Harding. Especially when, at the top of the state, Vladimir Putin claims to want to “denazify” Ukraine, in defiance of all reality.
inspiring
The now disastrous image of the Russian president outside his country, with the exception of his rare Syrian, Eritrean or Belarusian allies, is another factor in this informational defeat, believes the researcher.
Because facing him, the Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Zelensky shows “incredible courage” and “walks with his troops” despite the danger, which makes the Ukrainian position “inspiring”, she underlines.
An analysis put into perspective by Darren Linvill, a specialist in Russian digital manipulation from the American University of Clemson. Moscow’s objective remains above all to “control its own population”, he points out.
What the Russian-language social networks demonstrate, according to him, perfectly: “For every pro-Ukrainian story, like Russian soldiers who surrender without fighting or Ukrainian heroes praised for their courage, there is a similar story in Russia” where the roles are reversed.
A tweet posted in late February, viewed 118,000 times, shows a man being punched and then shot in a residential area. Its author, a pro-Russian communications executive, comments: “Kiev this morning. (…) The danger is not the Russian troops, but the Nazis.”
The content is difficult to verify, but the message reaches its target. “A lot of Russians believe in it,” sighs Darren Linvill.
This kind of story should multiply in the second phase of the war, which announces a new informational round, prognostic Baptiste Robert. If the cities fall, “there will be a new information war between the resisting areas and the counter-information that the Russians will impose.”