INFORMATION WARFARE AND DEMOCRACY: US STRATEGIES AGAINST SOCIAL MEDIA WARFARE OF CHINA AND RUSSIA

Abstract

Democracies, like the US, face challenges in the cyber-era due to their openness which allows the easy free flow of information. Social media allows countries like China and Russia to target the strengths of a democracy – freedom of information and free speech. This leads the US to use defensive strategies on digital platforms to deal with growing threats of manipulation and propaganda. Most of the world’s tech giants, such as Meta and Google, are US-based, which helps the US strengthen its defensive strategies. Russia has used social media to spread propaganda against the USA for a long time, a major highlighted point came when Russia interfered in the US election in 2016. Russia uses aggressive strategies by using fake accounts and bots on social media to spread disinformation in order to tilt public opinion in its desired way. China’s strategies on social media in the past were less aggressive as compared to Russian strategies. However, a shift has been seen recently as China is increasing its activity of manipulation on digital platforms. In 2024, many sites linked with China were removed from Google Search for spreading fake news. The major objective of both China and Russia is to create distrust in the minds of people of the US against their system. Joseph S. Nye Jr. argues that digital propaganda comes under sharp power, and it is difficult for it to coexist with soft power. Therefore, the US must carefully counter China and Russia without damaging its own soft power.