The Privacy Mission

CHAPTER 7Media Control

Media control is all about defining the narrative, because whoever controls the narrative defines the process or progress of international relations, whether in relation to elections, referenda or wars. We have seen this time and again throughout the conflicts in the Middle East – the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Libyan civil war, the war in Syria, and the ongoing situation in Israel and Palestine – but as I write this it is escalating to an entirely new level with the war being waged by Russia in Ukraine.

We are seeing how the impact of cyber war has resulted in the use of the likes of deep fakes to wage propaganda wars not only in the old media, but also on new media platforms such as social media sites.

DEEP FAKE: VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY

At the beginning of March, just a week after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian government's Center for Strategic Communication warned people that Russia was likely to use deep fake videos in an attempt to encourage Ukrainians to surrender. Just two weeks later, the first such attempt appeared.

A fake video of Zelensky appeared on social media sites, including Facebook, YouTube and Russian social network VKontakte, and Telegram. A still of the video and written description was also posted on Ukrainian TV channel TV24's website. In this video, “Zelensky” called for Ukrainian troops to lay down their weapons and surrender. This particular deep fake was not the most expertly executed, with ...