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?
