Humor is one of the few tools of information warfare that democracies have an advantage in using, says British researcher Keir Giles.
Humor and making the opponent a laughing stock seem to be a more effective counterattack than correcting wrong information in the conditions of today’s information war.
In a recent publication of the Hybrid Expertise Center on the war in Ukraine, it is stated that humor is one of the few tools of information warfare that is better used by liberal democracies than autocratic states.
The latter have been able to use freedom of speech and the rule of law, considered to be the West’s strength, against it in their influencing activities.
– In the fight against disinformation, many liberal democracies have fought with one or both hands tied behind their backs, describes the British researcher who prepared the report Keir Giles In an interview with STT.
The use of the humor weapon, on the other hand, turns the setting on its head. If the entire communication itself becomes laughable, the adversary will probably not want to continue it.
According to Giles, lack of humor is a common weakness of all authoritarian regimes, which provides a convenient target for the weapon of humor.
Darth Putin is sniggering
One of the most famous users of the humor weapon is the Darth Putin parody account operating on the X service (formerly Twitter). It highlights the absurdities and inconsistencies of Russia’s propaganda messages, as commented by Putin.
Among other things, Darth Putin has shared countless bulletins from the Russian presidential administration and equipped them with the statement: “Don’t believe anything until the Kremlin has denied it.”
Darth Putin commented on the insinuation shown on Russian television about infiltrating Finland across the armored eastern border by reminding that “the invasion of Finland went really well for us last time”.
For those looking for easy answers
The advantage of social media humor accounts in the information war is that they quickly reach the same audience that Russian influence efforts are aimed at.
– For people who are looking for easy answers, Giles summarizes.
The audience for traditional fact-checking and correcting information is narrower and consists of those who are willing to find out about things from the start.
Although the users of the humor weapon sneer at Russia, according to Giles, the target is not a Russian but a Western and international audience.