Putin understands propaganda. He used it effectively within America to help get his puppet in the U.S. elected. He also uses it effectively within Russia, although a big part of a dictator’s propanganda is cutting off sources of alternative information, including all social media.
And that’s where he’s losing. For the first time in history, this is when countries, soldiers, governing bodies, and civilian individuals can stay in constant contact. Even Russia’s own soldiers in Ukraine are often able to see on Ukraine devices the truth being reported everywhere except Russia. They are seeing and experiencing Putin’s lies up close. That, and supply issues, are likely why so many of them have left the front and headed home, sometimes on foot.
Some Ways Zelensky and many others of us are using social media and technology to help Ukraine:
Zelensky, age 44, and his Minister for Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Federov, age 31, are using volunteer hackers to beat Russia at its own hacking game. They shut down Russian government and industry websites, and hack into state-sanctioned news programs.
Federov used Twitter to appeal for volunteer hackers to work for Ukraine. He got 300,000 volunteers from around the world.
President Zelensky uses Telegram to communicate. His Twitter account is archived since March 2, 2022, although the official Twitter for the Ukraine, and the account for the Minister of Digital Transformation is active. Most of Zelensky’s appearances now are in video conferences with world leaders, congresses and parliaments. Being able to directly address other countries’ leaders and governing bodies predicts a shift in the way leaders will communicate from now on during wars, invasions and other future world-impacting issues.
President Zelensky appearing in person on social media quickly won the West to his side. As Srulik Einhorn writes in The Jerusalem Post,
His streaming of himself on the streets of the capital with his soldiers at a moment when Russia was claiming he had fled was priceless online theater. Only it was real, inspirational and emotional. His answer to the U.S. offering to help him escape was even more profound.
Nothing Putin says to his people or the world can hope to compete with that one, seen around the world, statement. Zelensky, from that point, won social media.
TikTok users have since swarmed to put out videos of Zelensky in all his manifestations. In further proof of how globalized the world is now, TikTok was founded in China and is owned by a Chinese company. Whether China ever makes a clear stance on the Russian invasion or not, TikTok is contributing it’s own support to Zelensky and Ukraine. Zelensky is clearly winning there.
People around the world are supporting Ukraine through social media, and not just with virtue signaling. We are buying downloads from individual Ukrainians on Etsy and Ravelry.com as a way to send money to them. Others are booking on AirBnb to send money and to provide housing to displaced Ukrainians, if the AirBnBs are still standing as Russia continues missile strikes against civilians.
His streaming of himself on the streets of the capital with his soldiers at a moment when Russia was claiming he had fled was priceless online theater. Only it was real, inspirational and emotional. His answer to the U.S. offering to help him escape was even more profound.
Nothing Putin says to his people or the world can hope to compete with that “heard around the world,” statement. Zelensky, from that point, won social media.
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This post was previously published on New Choices.
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