A Tactical Model of Malicious Targeting – A Case Study of Reporting Racism on the Polish-Ukrainian Border at the Beginning of War in 2022

The article is an analysis of disinformation about racism on the Polish-Ukrainian border. This article aims to show the process of creating a narrative and present the relationship between disinformation activities and the formation of the global divide. The research method is a case study based on a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of tweets of racism on the Polish-Ukrainian border in English (from February 26, 2022, to 13:00 on March 2, 2022). The main conclusions from the analysis are: Russian activities in the field of information are not accidental, but they are also not fully planned because they follow themes created by important actors such as journalists and public figures; the process of building harmful narratives has its stages, which often start with the malinformation, and then, thanks to the involvement of ordinary users, transform into misinformation and finally be directed as disinformation. The topic of racism is important in the geopolitical dimension and is addressed mainly to the societies of the Global South, to build a bloc of States that are in opposition to the domination of the US and the EU.