Technology and Fascism: Lessons from Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
BY ANNA ARTYUSHINA
On March 28, 1946, Albert Camus gave his famous lecture, The Crisis of Man, at Columbia University. Similar to Hanna Arendt in The Origins of Totalitarianism, he was reflecting on the factors that led so many Europeans to commit unimaginable acts of cruelty. According to Camus, the triumph of bureaucracy in the 20th century made Europeans feel and act less humanely. Arendt demonstrated that totalitarian regimes were highly effective at normalizing negative attitudes toward others and absolving individuals of ethical responsibility for their actions.
We have witnessed the transformation of social media platforms into dehumanizing institutions of the 21st century; the gradual descent of Russian political culture into fascism offers valuable lessons for societies that believe they are immune to the dangers of xenophobia. Not only does our digital culture reflect the patterns of alienation and group hostility that led to the Holocaust and two world wars, but our social time has also become compressed. The political and societal challenges that would have taken generations to become entrenched are now spreading like a forest fire through the WhatsApp family chats. The trial of Felicien Kabuga just ended in x Hague, convicting Kabuga for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, where radio was used to incite ethnic cleansing that ended in a massacre. In India currently, mass killings are often a result of someone posting false information on the WhatsApp messenger.
As someone who has family members in both Russia and Ukraine and as an academic studying the societal effects of digitalization, I have been painfully interested in finding a logical explanation as to how Russian citizens succumbed to the politics of rage and national hatred that Vladimir Putin champions, and whether state-funded Russian media disinformation campaigns played a role in this. Long before the war, paid Russian trolls spread false information about the Covid-19 vaccines and Brexit via social media platforms and messenger apps. The conflict in Ukraine was yet another assignment for them.
Power-hungry politicians and oligarchs have skilfully orchestrated the incremental changes to Russia's political culture that have brought the country to the brink of a third world war. The importance of technology in these processes cannot be overstated. In Russia in the 21st century, cultural, racial, gender, and other forms of intolerance propagated by alt-right groups and fringe politicians have been bolstered by online conspiracy groups and troll factories, as pro-Kremlin technology professionals weaponized the largest social media platforms to prioritize the most divisive and controversial content.
The first online anti-American campaign began in 2012 when the United States sanctioned Russia under the Magnitsky Act. That year, the Dima Yakovlev Law banned American families from adopting Russian children. This ruthless act of retaliation against the United States prevented many Russian orphans from finding loving families and receiving necessary medical care, as US families often adopted children with special needs. There was no opposition to this law in Russia. Instead, the state-funded press and social media diverted public attention away from the controversial law by discussing how a little boy, Dima Yakovlev, was mistreated by his adoptive family until his tragic death in 2012.
In 2013, Putin’s government targeted Russia's LGBTIQ movement. The “Anti-Gay Propaganda Law” prohibited the dissemination of any positive information about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals to minors. The state-led disinformation campaign on social media aimed to instill fear among Russian parents regarding individuals with "non-traditional" gender or sexual roles. In a few years, sexual and gender discrimination became so widespread that Canada, the US, and several European countries began accepting asylum applications from members of Russia’s LGBT community. In 2021, a Russian artist was imprisoned for posting drawings of a female body to an online feminist group.
Domestic battery was decriminalized in Russia in 2017. That means that all types of domestic violence have been classified as “administrative offenses.” In the absence of restriction orders under Russian law, victims of domestic abuse have been left without protection. The effects of this law have been catastrophic. Each year in Russia, 14,000 women die as a result of domestic abuse. On the rise are cases of failed self-defence in which previously abused women face murder charges. Several conservative politicians rose to prominence as a result of a heated public debate regarding the law. As in the US and elsewhere, they were backed by various religious groups and activists who aimed to shape the discussion around the return to “traditional values.” On social media, conservative citizens and paid trolls weaponized the personal stories of women abused by their partners in support of the new legislation.
Putin never underestimated the significance of mass media and social media in promoting his agenda. The government invests heavily in prime-time TV shows, social media influencers, and all forms of conservative media. In her recent book, How Propaganda Works, Tamara Eidelman argues that the conservative turn in Russian politics has rendered Russians susceptible to war propaganda manufactured by the Kremlin. Putin represents a cult of masculine power that is deeply rooted in patriarchal ideology, in which the father figure is the only stable force.
Public support for the war in Ukraine was manufactured using the same methods as the media campaign that persuaded Russians that women were protected in the "sanctuary" of the traditional family. Since the 2014 annexation of Crimea, state-funded media have referred to Ukraine as the only remaining "fascist state" in Europe. This message was reinforced by pro-Kremlin influencers posting on social media about the corruption scandals and the nationalist movement in Ukraine. One might see this as an instance of psychological projection, but the selection of rhetoric for this campaign was deliberate. The victory of the Allies over Hitler's forces in the Second World War is a cornerstone of culture in all post-Soviet countries, where almost everyone lost family members in the conflict.
The anti-Ukrainian media campaign has been so successful that many Russians continue to believe that Russian soldiers are fighting in Ukraine against some violent ultra-right gangs. There is also a distinct psychological component to this. Classical research by Sandor Ferenczi demonstrates that identifying with the aggressor is one of the numerous survival tools that humans have developed. However, as recent studies show, the manner in which information is presented to an individual may elicit distinct brain responses. In other words, it is simple to manipulate individuals into supporting the offender.
The dehumanizing effect of misinformation and disinformation campaigns on social media should never be underestimated. The only source of information for many people, social media have been shown to exacerbate existing political divisions and fuel deeply rooted fears. In Myanmar, Facebook was used to incite offline violence, leading to a horrific genocide against the Rohingya people. A few years later, in Brazil, false information about the side effects of COVID-19 vaccines and the alleged inaccuracies of the country’s ballot system contributed to the election of the controversial politician Jair Bolsonaro.
In times of political turmoil, it is also important to remember that Big Tech companies frequently side with authoritarian governments. In 2021, at the request of the Russian government, Apple and Google shut down a voting app developed by the grassroots activists. In 2019, in response to criticism from the Chinese government, Apple removed an app used by the Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters. In 2018, under government pressure, Apple blocked its App Store in Iran.
In his recent book, On Tyranny, Timothy Snyder argues that no modern society is safe from the type of toxic political culture that led Germany and other European nations to embrace totalitarianism. In Russia, the lack of public pushback against the political manipulation and digital propaganda led to the horrific war. Though media scholars are already well aware of the ways in which these platforms can be used to shore up oppressive regimes, it is past time that the rest of the world recognizes social media platforms for what they truly are: the tools of political and cultural dominance.
Anna Artyushina is a Ph.D. Candidate in Science&Technology Studies and a research fellow at the City Institute at York University, Canada. Her doctoral thesis explores a range of policy and technological initiatives aimed to address the extractive practices of technology monopolies. Follow her on Twitter at @socioanna.
