Social Media as a Platform for Manipulation: Domestic Experience in the Context of the Russian-Ukrainian War

The purpose of the article is to clarify the role of social media as a platform for manipulation in Ukraine in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The methodology. Achievement of the goal and solution of research tasks were based on the principle of objectivity, which revealed the multifaceted nature of the research object and allowed to get as close as possible to the realities of the peculiarities of information on social networks during the Russian-Ukrainian war. The study is based on a systematic approach, which involves clarifying the peculiarities of the dissemination of false information in order to determine the specifics of its detection and counteraction. In the process of clarifying the specifics of manipulations in social media in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the structural method was used, which allowed to describe the peculiarities of fake information on Viber and Facebook, the signs of this information and ways to identify false content. The authors used a case study method in their research, which allowed them to analyze ways to identify fake information using specific examples. The use of analysis and synthesis methods made it possible to determine the degree of development of the topic, as well as to identify general trends in the spread of false content on social media. A systematic solution to a problem should be preceded by its systematic formulation, which is the basis for a systematic analysis of the problem. The complete problem statement in the classics of the systematic approach, which includes formulation, construction, evaluation, justification and designation of the problem, was considered by the authors earlier (Bohdaniok, 2023; Mykolaichuk, 2021; Mykhalchenko, 2020; Pohorilov, 2023). The results. Messages containing extremely detailed and, at first glance, accurate information are often circulated in modern chat rooms, even if their sources do not have access to official military data. The authors summarized the characteristic features of falsified information in Viber and Facebook chats to ensure information hygiene when receiving and disseminating information and some ways to combat disinformation in the analyzed social networks. The scientific novelty is to substantiate the important role of social media as the most important media channels that also become a platform for the transmission of fake news and propaganda materials, which necessitates the study of social media at the level of generalizing the ways to verify the accuracy of information disseminated by them. Further research into the role of social media as a platform for manipulation in Ukraine in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war will help to address gaps in the implementation of a system to counter information manipulation. The practical significance lies in the development of approaches to information hygiene aimed at reducing the negative impact of information flows on the psychological and physical health of people and the general welfare of society.