THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS AS INSTRUMENTS OF PROPAGANDA, DISINFORMATION AND MEDIA SUBVERSION IN MODERN CONFLICTS

Over the past two decades, social media platforms have evolved from simple means of communication into critical infrastructures of modern conflicts. Existing literature has documented the roles of propaganda, disinformation and media subversion, but often through isolated case studies (Gaurino, et al. 2020) or one-dimensional analyses (Marigliano, Hui Xian Ng and Carley 2024). Although valuable, these approaches fail to capture the evolutionary dynamics and interconnections of these phenomena across time and space. On this matter, this article proposes a comparative analysis of six key-events in recent history: jihadist propaganda in Iraq and Afghanistan, the mobilizations during the Arab Spring, the hybrid campaign in Ukraine (2014), the U.S. presidential elections (2016), the COVID-19 infodemic, and the full-spectrum information warfare between Russia and Ukraine. This article is intended to offer an evolutionary comparative framework of disinformation, propaganda and media subversion, with both academic and practical values.