London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Jul 15, 2025

The big idea: can social media change the course of war?

The big idea: can social media change the course of war?

What we see online can have real world effects, for good or ill
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has played out, the ubiquity of social media in the conflict has been striking. Alongside the information wars being fought by the governments, militaries and authorities involved, and the reporting from accredited journalists, there is now almost unlimited potential for ordinary people caught up in events to share their own experiences. First-hand testimony and images of atrocities such as those in Bucha or Mariupol can appear on our social media feeds in real time, popping up incongruously between viral memes and cat videos.

This tide of unfiltered (or barely filtered) information is immediate and constant. It certainly makes a difference to the level of engagement that individuals around the world may have with dramatic events, often far away. But might that feed back to affect the course of wars themselves?

The technological revolution of the last three decades has linked human experiences and interactions more closely than ever before. Around two-thirds of the world’s population – 4.9 billion people – now have access to the internet (a number that has risen significantly during the coronavirus pandemic, by around 800 million new users). An estimated 4.4 to 4.6 billion of those use social media such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.

Social media users do not just watch these events unfold in real time; they react to and interact with them. Gestures such as incorporating a Ukrainian flag into one’s username may be merely symbolic, but when users lobby politicians online, donate money, or even offer up their own homes to refugees, their engagement with the war begins to have real-world consequences. Invading Russian forces seem to be aware of the potential of social media: they have targeted Ukrainian mobile communications networks, launching a missile attack on Kyivstar’s hub in Okhtyrka on 11 March, and reportedly going after communications infrastructure in Mariupol as well.

Social media is not the first innovation to revolutionise perceptions of war. Over the last two centuries, advances in communication technology have brought war ever closer to those who are not in it. In 1855, near to the site of the current conflict in Ukraine, the Crimean war was the first to be systematically photographed. (A few daguerrotypes of the earlier Mexican-American war of 1846-48 were made, but this was nothing like as comprehensive as the documentation of the Crimean war.) British photographer Roger Fenton took hundreds of images of battle sites, troops and the aftermath of the fighting.

While today smartphone users can broadcast live around the world, he could not even take photographs of battles in progress: the exposure time for plates was at least 20 seconds. His photographs did not change the course of war, but they helped raise awareness of the needs of wounded soldiers returning home, and allowed civilians a much fuller understanding of the field of war than ever before. Fenton’s portrait of a battle-worn Lord Balgonie is considered by some to be the first image of shellshock. It stood in harrowing contrast to the romanticised portraits of military men to which the public was accustomed.
Advertisement

During the first world war, cinema provided a new medium. In August 1916, the British War Office released a feature-length film, The Battle of the Somme, mixing documentary footage with staged recreations. It was an extraordinary success: 20 million people saw it during its first few weeks of release. There was widespread anxiety, though, about graphic images of casualties, and whether exhibiting them turned war into a gruesome form of entertainment. The Manchester Guardian reasoned at the time about the disturbing footage: “This is what war means, and it is right that our people should be made to feel the horror of it and realise that it is not merely a lively game that goes on in newspapers.” Similar arguments about graphic images and videos continue on social media today.

In the 1960s, the conflict in Vietnam was described as the first “television war”, with combat footage broadcast nightly across the US. There is still debate among historians about the extent to which this affected public opinion. In February 1968, shortly after the Tet offensive, CBS anchor Walter Cronkite sombrely told his audience that “we are mired in stalemate”. President Lyndon B Johnson is said to have remarked: “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.” A few weeks later, he announced that he would not seek another term as president. There were many factors in turning American public opinion against the fighting, but Cronkite’s moderate assessment does seem to have had an impact on the commander-in-chief.

The war in Ukraine is not the first in the age of social media. More than a decade ago, the series of uprisings known as the Arab spring spread in part because of the speed and effectiveness of online communication. One Egyptian man was reportedly so taken by the role social media had played that he named his first daughter Facebook Jamal Ibrahim. More recently, the conflict in Syria has been described as the most socially mediated in history – at least, that is, until the invasion of Ukraine.

Every new communication technology has brought with it a debate on the ethics and credibility of wartime information. In Fenton’s most famous Crimean photograph, Valley of the Shadow of Death, cannonballs are thought to have been moved into the road to create a more dramatic composition. The use of propaganda by warring parties goes back to the ancient world, and social media is only the latest vehicle for this. But there are significant ways in which it does change the game. Among these is the sheer speed and quantity of information. That, in turn, has increased the need for swift and comprehensive counter-propaganda: information that may be true but is damaging to one’s own side must be discredited before it can take hold. Russian influencers on social media such as Telegram now respond immediately to any evidence of atrocities by declaring it fake or blaming it on Ukrainians.

Wartime information, however it is delivered, can affect decisions made by power-brokers and influence national – or global – public opinion. It may boost or lower the morale of troops, and of civilians caught up in the fighting. Social media advances on earlier technologies by radically increasing the speed of information delivery and the size of its audience, and by empowering individuals to share their own versions of events – for better or worse. As for the course of fighting itself, there is always more to the picture than information, however much of it is pumped out. The way a war unfolds may be swayed by the competence of leadership or troops, materiel, supply lines, the weather, or even luck. As generations of propagandists have already discovered, the facts on the ground may in the end disrupt even the most carefully constructed narrative.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Google Secures Windsurf AI Coding Team in $2.4 Billion Licence Deal
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
South African Police Minister Suspended Amid Organised Crime Allegations
Nvidia CEO Claims Chinese Military Reluctance to Use US AI Technology
Hong Kong Advances Digital Asset Strategy to Address Economic Challenges
Australia Rules Out Pre‑commitment of Troops, Reinforces Defence Posture Amid US‑China Tensions
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
U.S. Resumes Deportations to Third Countries After Supreme Court Ruling
Excavation Begins at Site of Mass Grave for Children at Former Irish Institution
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
EU Delays Retaliatory Tariffs Amid New U.S. Threats on Imports
Trump Defends Attorney General Pam Bondi Amid Epstein Memo Backlash
Renault Shares Drop as CEO Luca de Meo Announces Departure Amid Reports of Move to Kering
Senior Aides for King Charles and Prince Harry Hold Secret Peace Summit
Anti‑Semitism ‘Normalised’ in Middle‑Class Britain, Says Commission Co‑Chair
King Charles Meets David Beckham at Chelsea Flower Show
If the Department is Really About Justice: Ghislaine Maxwell Should Be Freed Now
NYC Candidate Zohran Mamdani’s ‘Antifada’ Remarks Spark National Debate on Political Language and Economic Policy
President Trump Visits Flood-Ravaged Texas, Praises Community Strength and First Responders
From Mystery to Meltdown, Crisis Within the Trump Administration: Epstein Files Ignite A Deepening Rift at the Highest Levels of Government Reveals Chaos, Leaks, and Growing MAGA Backlash
Trump Slams Putin Over War Death Toll, Teases Major Russia Announcement
Reparations argument crushed
Rainmaker CEO Says Cloud Seeding Paused Before Deadly Texas Floods
A 92-year-old woman, who felt she doesn't belong in a nursing home, escaped the death-camp by climbing a gate nearly 8 ft tall
French Journalist Acquitted in Controversial Case Involving Brigitte Macron
Elon Musk’s xAI Targets $200 Billion Valuation in New Fundraising Round
Kraft Heinz Considers Splitting Off Grocery Division Amid Strategic Review
Trump Proposes Supplying Arms to Ukraine Through NATO Allies
EU Proposes New Tax on Large Companies to Boost Budget
Trump Imposes 35% Tariffs on Canadian Imports Amid Trade Tensions
Junior Doctors in the UK Prepare for Five-Day Strike Over Pay Disputes
US Opens First Rare Earth Mine in Over 70 Years in Wyoming
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
Bitcoin Reaches New Milestone of $116,000
Biden’s Doctor Pleads the Fifth to Avoid Self-Incrimination on President’s Medical Fitness
Grok Chatbot Faces International Backlash for Antisemitic Content
Severe Heatwave Claims 2,300 Lives Across Europe
NVIDIA Achieves Historic Milestone as First Company Valued at $4 Trillion
Declining Beer Consumption Signals Cultural Shift in Germany
Linda Yaccarino Steps Down as CEO of X After Two Years
×