Social media and disinformation in war propaganda: how Afghan government and the Taliban use Twitter

Abstract

Advancement in communication technology evolved means and structure of media production. It also democratized dissemination of information. Social media as a significant platform for political engagement are also used for both diffusion and propagation. This study examines disinformation and propaganda in war in the age of information particularly through social media. It analyzes Twitter's posts of the Afghan government and the Taliban, from January to March 2018. For understanding disinformation, 952 tweets of both parties were crosschecked with four national media outlets and a civilian protection advocacy group; and to recognize how the belligerents tried to present and propagate, their contents were analyzed to identify terms that dominate their outbound information. The study found discrepancy in information disseminated by the warring parties and mainstream media. Terrorism and Jihad were dominant frames of government and the Taliban, respectively. The findings could contribute to a greater body of literature regarding propaganda in operationalization of social media in the conflict zone.

Keywords:

• Social media
• twitter
• disinformation
• war propaganda
• propaganda
• Taliban
• Afghanistan

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank professor Shen Hui (my supervisor), professor Janice Xu, professor Marilyn Weaver and professor Roy Weaver for their timely guidance, reading and correcting syntax and semantic mistakes of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.