Trollfare: Russia’s Disinformation Campaign During Military Conflict in Ukraine

Authors

  • Larissa Doroshenko Northeastern University
  • Josephine Lukito University of Texas at Austin

Keywords:

disinformation, information warfare, Internet Research Agency, Russia, Ukraine, Donbass, topic modeling, time-series analysis

Abstract

In this study, we explore online informational warfare by the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) against Ukraine during the military conflict in Donbass. Introducing a digital dimension to the long-standing Russian disinformation strategy of reflexive control as a historic and theoretical framework, we investigate how the IRA combined online news and social media platforms to promote propaganda to its growing number of followers. Combining computational and qualitative content analyses with time series modeling, we demonstrate how the IRA blurs distinctions between fact and fiction through interlinks among digital platforms, and we expose its successful strategies for follower growth on Twitter. We conclude with implications for understanding and promptly identifying modern hybrid warfare strategies, with a focus on coordinated multiplatform efforts that spread disinformation through the hybrid media ecosystem.

Author Biographies

Larissa Doroshenko, Northeastern University

Larissa Doroshenko is a Postdoctoral Associate at Northeastern University. Her research is centered on the effects of new media on political campaigning, with a particular focus on “the dark side” of the internet: populism, nationalism, and disinformation campaigns.

Josephine Lukito, University of Texas at Austin

Josephine Lukito is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. She studies linguistic communication in the public sphere over time and specializes in mixed methods and computational approaches to text analysis.

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Published

2021-10-28

Issue

Vol. 15 (2021)

Section

Articles

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