The Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS), New Delhi, is an independent Think Tank dealing with national
security and conceptual aspects of land warfare, including conventional & sub-conventional conflict and terrorism.
CLAWS conducts research that is futuristic in outlook and policy-oriented in approach.
Website: www.claws.in Contact us: landwarfare@gmail.com
N
o. 333 March 2022
Information War Against
Russia on Social Media:
But Experts Say It Is Far
From Over !!
Major General PK Mallick, VSM (Retd)
held the Chief of Army Staff Chair of
Excellence at CLAWS. The General is an
Electronics and Telecommunication
Engineering graduate from BE College,
Shibpore, MSc (Defence Studies) from
Madras University, M.Tech from IIT,
Kharagpur, MMS from Osmania University
and M. Phil from Madras University. He
was commissioned in the Corps of Signals
of Indian Army. The Officer has interest in
Cyber Warfare, Electronic Warfare,
SIGINT, Technology and Strategic Affairs.
His last posting before retirement was
Senior Directing Staff (Army) at National
Defence College, New Delhi.
Introduction
In all military conflicts of the last decade,
especially in Estonia and Georgia involving
Russia, one thing has come out loud and
clear― Information Warfare will precede
conflict and it will continue during the conflict.
The ongoing conflict in Ukraine is no
exception.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has
been labelled as the first "TikTok War," with
photos and videos from soldiers and civilians
alike spreading and proliferating in real time.
1
The war has become content, flowing across
every platform at once.
Russia's armed forces are one of the most
capable and technologically advanced
Key Points
• The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been
labelled as the first "TikTok War".
• Before and during the invasion, Russia
us
ed misinformation, disinformation, and
malinformation to influence and manipulate
public opinion, both for domestic audiences
and abroad.
• US has released intelligence to the public
about Russian plans which prevented
Russia's disinformation tactics from
achieving their goal.
• Social media platforms are playing big role
in information warfare. Neutrality of Social
media has been exposed.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
has come out as a media savvy
commander of information warfare.
• Many major media houses suggest that
Ukraine is winning the information war. It is
too early to declare winners and losers in
this information war.
