Modern Armed Conflicts: Disinformation Campaigns Shaping the Digital Information Landscape

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the influence and implications of information warfare during the current armed conflicts on the digital information landscape. Disinformation campaigns are not a new weapon on the battlefield, but the rapid development of technology, like artificial intelligence (AI), in recent history has contributed to the rapid transformation of the digital information landscape. This poses a threat to the future of digital information, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy, ultimately revealing the depth of disinformation as a contributor to psychological operations during these times. This paper will explore the history of disinformation during armed conflicts, review current literature on disinformation and the implications, analyze the disinformation campaigns utilized during current Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas conflicts, and highlight the humanitarian direness of the transforming digital information landscape. It has been revealed that this issue is multifaceted-undetectably embedding itself within societies across the globe, influencing not only decisive military actions locally, but the minds of millions. Left unaddressed on a global scale, disinformation campaigns may leave the digital information landscape unrecognizable in the future while harming consumers everywhere.

KEYWORDS:

• Disinformation
• disinformation campaign
• digital information landscape
• information warfare
• Russia-Ukraine
• Israel-Hamas

Acknowledgments

This article was written for the course INF 7500: Information Behavior, taught by Dr. Bin Li at Wayne State University’s School of Information Science. Sarah is currently a MLIS candidate at Wayne State University and they would like to personally thank Dr. Li for her support, encouragement, and guidance throughout the program and specifically on this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

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