“Vladimir Putin is very afraid of humor car it is an effective and accessible tool for spreading the truth.” In an interview with The Atlantic last April, Volodymyr Zelenskiy didn’t beat around the bush. Irony and satire have become a real weapon of mass communication for son country. It is about this symbolic battle that we will tell you today. We will see that the Ukrainians scored a lot points in this area since February last year. Having found itself in a predicament on the basis of Internet propaganda, Russia tried to repeat. But his troll farm strategy isn’t necessarily very cunning, and it has many limitations, which we’ll get to in a moment.
Why do Ukrainians rely so heavily on Internet humor?
Long before the invasion Last February, Ukraine wanted to resist the force son neighbor in the information area. Belonging son Since coming to power in May 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky has decided to appoint former colleagues from his audiovisual production company as advisors, the Washington Post recalls. What passes for nepotism turns out to be very effective in the long run. Very quickly, the new government really tried population Ukraine to attempts at manipulation by Russia. At the same time, TV shows tend to reinforce Ukrainian national identity. Many satirical programs are also broadcast on television and openly ridicule the regime of Vladimir Putin. As soon as the war began, and although this conflict was clearly not a laughing matter, Volodymyr Zelensky and son The government chooses a communicative approach based on humor. As Chonlawit Sirikupt, a researcher at the Eberhard Karl University in Tübingen, explains: “When a society is going through traumatic events, satire and dark humor can help people confront feelings of helplessness and helplessness. He adds: Kyiv uses all this in its information campaign aimed at weakening the image of the Russian army and Russian President Vladimir Putin while cultivating Ukrainian solidarity. To do this, it uses several targeted key messages. »
???? do not confuse with Ukrainian farmers peak.twitter.com/fSy5WyCkuT
— Ukraine / Ukraine (@Ukraine) March 7, 2022
There are many examples of this strategy. We can especially cite this tweet where he sees Ukrainian tractors returning Russian tanks. “Don’t mess with our farmers, our farmers” menace government twitter account. What to make smile and evoke sympathy face to the omnipotence of the invader. More recently, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine scathingly about the defeat of the Russian army in the Kharkov region, where military equipment was abandoned: “The last Russian T-90M tank was found in perfect condition. We ask son (its) owner(s) to contact our army. Please identify yourself with a sign: white flag. »
Why did the chicken cross the road? Because it was a regrouping. – Protection of Ukraine (@DefenceU) September 20, 2022
International dog head meme group press charges
In this war of humor, the Kyiv authorities can also count on the support of Internet users who want to help Ukraine. NAFO, the organization of the North Atlantic boys, was created last June after an online skirmish between a tweeter and Russia’s ambassador to international organizations in Vienna. It now has several hundred members, according to Le Monde, which investigated the mysterious group. They all proudly wear photos in profile, sporting Shiba dogs dressed as soldiers or CIA agents. It’s about the doge, the famous meme, grand culture classic web.
Written by NAFO! peak.twitter.com/j3Phtgdk9b
— Jacques Kahl #NAFOfella (@JaquesKahl) September 19, 2022
Very effectively, NAFO is engaged in digital raids, a bit reminiscent of the practice of Russian troll farms. This tactic has not escaped the attention of Volodymyr Zelensky’s government, which supports their approach. Thus, on September 4, Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov thanked NAFO for son combat Violently against trolls and Kremlin propaganda. However, this initiative comes with a certain risk of drift. Our colleagues cite as an example a video shared by members of the organization in early September, where he sees a wounded Russian soldier screaming in pain. This passage turns into a mocking meme, an idea that is being discussed in the community, car ethical limits are clearly reached.
Delicate response and failures on the Russian side
Faced with the introduction of effective communication methods place Russians seem to be rummaging around for Ukrainians. Internally, and although the authorities have officially closed access to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, the answer is in the Telegram app and online. social VKontakte, the local analogue of Facebook. For the purposes of this article, we have reviewed several support pages at invasion in Ukraine. There are many memes aimed at discrediting the neighboring state, many of which simply do not air in our columns. First of all, this is the very first degree of humor used. Rather, it seems to be aimed at public old and conservative. In some videos, the Ukrainians are accused of making a sinister pact with Uncle Sam, who will pull all the strings behind the scenes. Another image is off topic and compares the NATO base to a public toilet. © VKontakte In addition to these memes, designed to support the discourse of the regime among Russian citizens, on one can also single out a strategy focused on Western public opinion. The cryptic video tweeted by several Russian embassies last July is from Game. of thrones, claiming that “Winter arrive ”, referring to the energy difficulties that the European Union and the United States may face.
Time move to Russia ????????❤️ peak.twitter.com/4CZL1Nt4Gi
— Russia in Spain (@EmbajadaRusaES) July 29, 2022
Therefore, Internet users are invited to come to Russia, where “delicious cuisine, beautiful women and cheap energy.” As the Financial Times analyzes, the idea is probably not to attract many visitors to place and “troll” the West. So the message could hit citizens on the far right with references to “cancel culture”.
Manipulation campaign thwarted by Facebook
To try to support son invasion In Ukraine, Russia also tried to launch Operation Cyber Front Z. Unlike NAFO, which we talked about above, this initiative was not spontaneous. Researchers at Meta (formerly Facebook) and an investigation by the independent Russian media outlet Fontanka have indeed established a connection with Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman close to Vladimir Putin. In addition to creating the Wagner mercenary group, on He is also credited with founding the Internet Research Agency, an organization dedicated to Internet propaganda. Under Cyber Front Z, the idea was to identify certain targets, such as Russian liberals opposed to the war, or certain Western politicians who are known to favor Ukraine. Then an army of trolls was launched and they had to comment on their various profiles in an attempt to sway public opinion in favor of the Kremlin. Nothing went according to plan and the experience was aborted. Facebook experts called it “clumsy and largely inefficient.”
Cyber Front Z is broadcasting a fake photo that is supposed to prove that the environmental sanctions against ???????? are backfiring on the EU: thus, the hours of operation of the Lyon metro would be reduced by 2 hours to reduce energy consumption. Except they did it with their feet. peak.twitter.com/HixW47c4ph
— Colin Gerard (@_ColinGerard) July 19, 2022
One of the messages deployed during this operation showed, in particular, the Lyon metro, whose hours of operation were to be reduced due to high energy prices. The problem is that this photo was taken by a Russian tourist passing through the city of light in 2015. In Russia, this attempt was not successful. On VKontakte, where Cyber Front Z job offers were posted, a user joked: “Requirements: 1) IQ below 70.” In conclusion, it is worth noting that some Russian Internet users who oppose the war also wield weapons of humor. These initiatives are bold car those involved face extremely severe penalties. Like this Twitter user who recently asked if he was possible obtain the status of a foreign agent (put a label place regime to suppress their opponents (Editor’s note) in exchange for a bribe.
