How Information War is Fought between Russia and West over Ukraine Crisis?

Taking peace for granted after world war II, 24 February 2022 is now a day in history.

Prior to invasion, Russians and West were responsible for hacks and malware attacks on each other. Few years ago, Ukrainian digital ministry formed a cyber army to takedowns and defacement of Russian media sites. With invasion proceeds and world watches, journalists and media in the west are using Ukrainian pronunciation of the Capital ‘Kyiv’ rather than Russian pronunciation.

The tech giants Twitter, Facebook, Apple, you tube, Google have sanctioned Russia digitally. Google has barred Russian state media from monetizing content on its platforms. Apple has gone one step further as it has suspended all product sales in Russia and cutting Russians on apple play and other services. It has also blocked RT i.e Russian Today and sputnik from its app store everywhere outside Russia. Moreover, Twitter is labelling all posts by the Russian state media adding a warning of sorts on pro-Russian stories. Meta the parent company of Facebook has left its contemporaries way behind. Facebook and Instagram will allow posts calling for violence against Russians and their president Vladimir Putin.

In repercussion Russia has slowed down twitter speed in the country, Instagram has been blocked, meta has been banned and labelled as extremists and youtube is not accessible. On the claim of inciting anti-Russian protests, many independent media outlets have been shut down. The government is ready for more censorship if needed and has already taken full control of Information sphere since the Special Military Operation started.

As Russia intensifies the war in Ukraine, the 4 big Ukrainian median outlet has come together to provide the world an uninterrupted news of what’s happening in the country. The misinformation and claims are tools in war to creates psychological pressure on the enemy.

1. Ukrainian president left the capital to dissuade the military and the common people of Ukraine.

2. Ukraine claimed they are successfully defending their lands but Russia took control of some parts of Ukraine in 2 days.

3. The ‘Ghost of Kyiv’ pilot is reportedly said to have single-handedly shot down 5 Russian planes and 1 Russian helicopter to build the moral of Ukrainian people.

4. The other media platform claimed that ‘Panther of Khariv’ a local cat was working with Ukrainian military to detect Russian snipers.

With people sharing the shocking images of people killed, facebook automatically removed hashtags linked to Bucha killing stating of violet graphics.Andy Stone, Policy Communication Director set to preserve various data from war and explore ways for other types of data content. West wants the world to see what Russia did in Bucha but on the other hand Russia denied all the claims.

Russia wants to tell stories of its military power and Ukraine wants to encourage its people through its tales of its resistance.