Post-truth Politics in Syria: ‘Rumor Bombs’ on the White Helmets

Photograph by Sultan Kitaz / Reuters

This chapter from my monograph Social Media and The Post-Truth World Order  presents a case study based on the analysis of a disinformation campaign carried by the Syrian regime and its ally Russia against the search-and-rescue organization globally known as the White Helmets, who operate since 2014 in Syria’s rebel-held areas.

This case study on the Syrian Civil War shows how rumors, conspiracy theories and other post-truth narratives in support of the Assad regime were given amplification by Russian media and via social media by a group of selfstyled independent journalists and social media influencers, as well as by political bots and sock-puppet accounts.

Such manipulative and propagandistic efforts found a receptive audience in Western countries, where social media users actively shared or co-created misleading or fictional narratives in a cultural and political context characterized by public opinion radicalization and polarization.

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