Uniting the world behind Ukraine: The platformization of United24 Media’s narratives on Instagram and YouTube and the in/visibilization of war

Examining the Ukrainian propaganda organization United24 Media, this article aims to understand how states adapt to social media platformization and the fragmentation of publics. Specifically, it asks how United24 Media adapts its narratives of the war in Ukraine to the distinct technical affordances, languages and publics of Instagram and YouTube. It argues that, rather than simply reproducing similar content across platforms, United24 Media “translates” its narratives into the popular languages of social media platforms. The study is based on a qualitative analysis of over 2,500 short videos published on Instagram and YouTube between 1 February 2023 and 30 September 2024. It finds strong evidence of different communication strategies tailored to each platform’s publics. Ultimately, it demonstrates how the platformization of war facilitates the presentation of different versions of a conflict curated to targeted publics. This targeting contributes to legitimizing and normalizing war.