Fakes as a Tool of Pressure in War Conditions: Specifics of Application and Perception

Abstract

The article analyzes the main approaches to the formation of communicative inter actions in war time, especially in terms of using manipulative components within the hybrid info field. Fakes are considered as the most effective elements of disinformation and propaganda, as a tool of information warfare and the formation of an anti-national position. Taking into account the large-scale information penetration of fakes into the country’ socio-political discourse, social networks and Internet resources were chosen as the field of analysis, because it is precisely on these communication platforms that manipulative content and audience disorientation are most effectively used today. In the conditions of the modern Russian war against Ukraine, the problem of disinformation has become the most urgent, because, in Ukrainians have to win back not only territories captured by Russians, but the consciousness of their citizens as well, to return it to the national media space, and free the latter from artificial Russian mythologies and narratives. In this regard, the systematics of fakes study involves not only the analysis of the functional mechanism of their creation and dissemination, but also integrative measures for active opposition to them and refutation, the search for ways of legal pun ishment for this kind of violation. After all, today fakes are primarily a psychological weapon, and the consequences of its using during the war have the ability to change the cognitive attitudes of society and lead to fatal consequences. As a method of combating disinformation, fact-checking is considered as a process of researching available facts and data to find out their completeness, reliability and truth.

Keywords

• disinformation, propaganda, fake, information war, media space, fake content, manipulation, social networks.