Disinformation Content Is Also A Powerful Weapon In The Russia-Ukraine Conflict

JAKARTA - Based on 2022 digital data published by We Are Social, in Ukraine there are 28 million social media users out of a total of 43.3 million population. It can be said that 65 percent of the population of this country led by Volodymyr Zelensky everyday access and use social media.

In its report Digital News Report 2021, it is stated that six out of 10 people in the world who can access the internet rely on social media as a source of daily news. Social media has become a reliable medium to obtain information easily and quickly.

At present, the attention of almost the entire population of the earth is on the Russian military aggression on the territory of Ukraine. Social media is one of the mainstays of information channels regarding news of the armed conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Social media users need to be wise and careful in choosing the information they receive.

Disinformation content is one of the weapons used in the armed conflict in Ukraine. Now without us searching, the conflict situation between Russia and Ukraine will appear on our social media.

Nearly 60 percent of social media users are from the age of 18 to 54 years, this data shows that almost all age groups rely on social media as a source of news.

Through social media, people can act as consumers as well as information makers. This type of disinformation content is information that is manipulated in such a way as to deceive the audience from the facts. Manipulation of information that is used to achieve certain goals can be referred to as propaganda.

One example is on February 25, 2022, or the day after Russia carried out an attack on Ukrainian territory, media affiliated with the Russian Government spread the news that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had fled abroad.

However, after the news circulated President Zelensky uploaded a short video showing his presence in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, proof that information is one of the wars in the digital age.

Choice of Variety of Social Media

Youtube is the most accessed social media (28 million users), followed by Instagram (16 million users), Facebook (16 million users), Tiktok (11 million users), and finally Twitter with 900,000 daily users for Ukrainian citizens.

Meanwhile, the coverage of social media users in Russia reaches 73 percent of the 146 million population. The publication Digital 2022 The Russian Federation shows that Youtube (106 million users) is the most accessed social media platform by Russian citizens.

The results of the study by Shelby Grossman from the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), show that the Ukrainian people are trying to uncover the truth that happened through uploads on social media or Twitter, Facebook, and Tiktok. So it is not surprising that the step taken by the Russian government is to block the social media platforms that Ukrainians rely on to share the latest conditions

The Russian government so considers the realm of social media as part of the war. Reporting from The Guardian, on March 4, 2022, Russia's communications regulator Roskomnadzor said it had blocked access to Facebook and Twitter for Russian residents.

Even to control public activity on social media, the Russian parliament approved the enactment of a law that regulates the publication and dissemination of fake news related to the war in Ukraine. The penalty for violating this law is 15 years in prison.

Spread to Indonesia

This disinformation content also spread to Indonesia. Currently, fraud is starting to appear in the form of invitations to donate funds or other needs for Ukrainian refugees or to support the war effort.

We recommend that you verify through a search engine regarding the correctness of the information. Kominfo also reported a number of hoax content about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. One of them is a Youtube video on February 27, 2022, which states that the TNI is helping Ukraine attack the Russian military. After being verified, the video originally only discussed the opinion of observers so that Indonesia would help Ukraine related to the Russia versus Ukraine conflict.

This year, for the first time the Digital News Report 2021 includes Indonesia as a surveyed region. This is based on the high number of social media users in the country, which has reached 71 percent.

Of its kind, there are five social media that are the most widely used sources of news by Indonesian citizens. The five are WhatsApp (60 percent), YouTube (46 percent), Facebook (42 percent), Instagram (38 percent), and Twitter (22 percent).

Propaganda content and fake news in the Russia-Ukraine war that is spreading around us, need to be balanced with the ability to sort out information on social media. Therefore, it is important to observe the extent to which social media is used as a news source, especially in Indonesia.