The Information Warfare

Russia invaded Ukraine 40 days ago and the military operation is still going on and so is the war of words. Whether it’s the Russian State media or the Western Media outlet, the adversaries are the same for both outlets. Both sides are armoring themselves with information that benefits their respective governments.

It requires careful navigation to get accurate information about what is taking place in reality. Headlines in the Western media claim that Putin’s forces are facing embarrassment and heavy casualties, stories regarding war for instance the death toll has always been skeptical. In this case, most western media is citing Ukrainian figures, and they are claiming to have killed more than 15,000 Russian soldiers during the military operation in Ukraine and this is at least 24 times more than what the Kremlin says.

These discrepancies are not limited to casualties only, they can also create havoc on both sides. Russians claim to have destroyed more than 900 Ukrainian tanks whereas Ukraine claims to have destroyed more than 300 Russian tanks and both camps accuse each other of lying.

These variations explain what kind of story each axis wants to present to its people. Ukraine wants to raise the morale of its people by narrating successful resistance, and the Russians want to persuade their people to stories of military gain and neither party wants to talk about those who died during this military operation.

It should not be forgotten that verifying the war data is a very difficult task as it’s a war and access to war zones is limited and there are no independent observers to confirm the figures. In these kinds of critical situations, it becomes uncertain how much information is filtered, edited, blocked, or self-generated. Different and multiple narratives circulate the world.

• Ukrainians are effectively defending their country, and if we believe this story to be true then how the Russian army did reach the suburbs of Kyiv in just a few days?
• Russian forces are making slow progress, how can one measure and calculate Russia’s progress in the absence of Russian war plans.
• Another unethical narrative is that everything the West says is true and anyone who does not accept this statement is trying to sabotage the sovereignty of Ukraine.

All of these stories should be challenged. Unfiltered information shapes the opinion of the public in this era of social media. Even worse is that social media does not provide an equal opportunity as it is controlled by western countries, we are talking about tech giants like Apple, Google, Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube and they have aligned themselves with the western narrative. They have been and are pushing the Western verdicts and limiting it to the Russian side of the story.

Russia has been digitally sanctioned by these privately-owned tech companies, One must keep in mind that no legal or regulatory obligation from any government on these technology companies to cut its ties with Russia. These companies have decided on their own to take a side based on their shareholder perspectives.

• Apple has stopped all its product sales in Russia, cutting off Apple Play services in Russia and also blocking Sputnik and RT from its app stores everywhere outside Russia.
• Google bans Russian state media from monetizing content on its platform.
• Twitter is labeling all posts by Russian state media with some sort of warning on the pro-Russian narrative.
• Facebook parent company Meta has surpassed its contemporaries, in a report which was released a few weeks ago, stated that Facebook and Instagram will allow all posts related to violence against Russians and their President Vladimir Putin.

This kind of criminal behavior ignites hatred, it is a dishonest feud and enmity against all Russians, these companies are deciding on their own what is right and what is wrong. This raises many questions for other countries as well,

If we look at the map above it shows all the countries that the United States has invaded or participated in militarily. The US has attacked or fought at least 84 of the 193 countries recognized by the United Nations.

America’s doings do not justify Russia’s actions in any manner. Assault is wrong and there are no two ways about this heinous crime. The hypocrisy of American companies combined with Big Tech’s selection process is noteworthy. 3 US rights groups have released a report in 2021 stating that since Big Tech never remained neutral, the US war on terrorism has made them tremendously huge profits, especially Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. They received $ 44.5 billion in contracts from the US Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon.

These agreements assisted the American military in its operations, providing them with digital tools that were used in wars to access complex databases, cloud computing services, surveillance, and drone technology along with promoting the US-based storyline. The report also states that $350,000 worth of ads to promote US federal-funded terrorism were given to Facebook. It covers narratives and violent terrorist trends in Islamic countries. Facebook helped in promoting these narratives and it was just one deal and hundreds of other contracts and subcontracts were given to such US tech companies.

These platforms have a direct connection with the minds and hearts of their users around the world. The potential and reach of these companies are way beyond a common man’s imagination, with 207 million people using Facebook every day, 2.6 billion people using Twitter every day, and 1.2 billion daily active users on YouTube. These tech companies have changed the world’s view of US actions by controlling conversations about the conflicts around the world.

Another American rights group suggests that hundreds of former U.S. government representatives are currently working in key positions at these large tech companies. Things become clearer when we look at who is running the show within these companies. It includes officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Justice and Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, and the National Security Agency.

• Brian Fishman an expert in Counterterrorism at combating terrorism center in west point worked for 5 years with Facebook as a counterterrorism chief.
• David Tessler, a former senior US state department official works at Facebook as a public policy manager.
• Steve Pandelides worked for the FBI for 20 years and is currently the Director of Security at Amazon Web Services.
• Christine Halvorsen who worked as an Assistant Director of the FBI also served at Amazon in a Mission Acceleration Team.
• Joseph de Rozek worked in the Department of Defense and now works at Microsoft as a director of Homeland Security, where he specializes in “information sharing”.

These are just a few names; Reports say there are revolving doors between Big Tech companies and US government agencies. Countless security officials and policymakers are hiding information in line with American interests. According to them, the world is controlled by those who have control over the flow of information. In the current Russia Ukraine conflict, Russia has been given the title of the aggressor, and the West’s monopoly on information flow is creating uncertainty and making the situation more complex. We cannot consider every narrative to be correct at face value, transparency cannot be confused with visibility. It is only possible if the personal interests of the wardens of global information are unconsidered when it becomes global affairs.