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

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

George-Adrian AIONESEI

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“Henri Coandă” Air Force Academy, Brasov, Romania

DOI: 10.64404/JoDRM.2025.2.16

Issue: Vol. 16, Issue 2 (31) / 2025

Abstract

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 onedimensional
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.

Key words:

social media, disinformation, propaganda, media subversion,
modern conflicts.

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