The visual nature of information warfare: the construction of partisan claims on truth and evidence in the context of wars in Ukraine and Israel/Palestine

Abstract

Abstract Despite the potential of visual disinformation to deceive people on pressing socio-political issues, we currently lack an understanding of how online visual disinformation (de)legitimizes partisan truth claims at times of war. As an important next step in disinformation theory and research, this article inductively mapped a wide variety of global visual disinformation narratives on armed conflicts disseminated via social media. The narratives were sampled through various international fact-checking databases, involving multiple social media platforms and countries. The analyses reveal that visual disinformation mainly consisted of existing footage that was decontextualized in a deceptive manner based on time, location, or fictionality. Moving beyond existing research exploring how decontextualized visuals offer proof for counter-factual narratives, our findings indicate that visuals contribute to the process of othering by constructing a “delusional rationality” that legitimizes mass violence and the destruction of the other. These findings have crucial ramifications for international policy and interventions at times of global armed conflicts that are covered widely across social media channels.