Typology of fakes about the special operation in Ukraine in the digital public sphere

Abstract

The article represents the analysis of fake information distributed in the digital public sphere, namely, of a very significant amount of digital content about the special military operation on the territory of Ukraine. The object of the study is the nature of the discursive interaction of agents of political communication in the digital public sphere in the process of broadcasting their views and opinions. The analysis is based on the messages posted primarily on the social network VKontakte. The most important criterion for selecting material included in the scope of the study was its fake, that is, unreliable, distorted content. As a result of the analysis, the authors make an attempt to classify the fake narratives within this topic and highlight their features. The understanding such features of fake narratives, on the one hand, should allow critical perception of the information disseminated in the sphere of public digital discourse and diagnose fake information as such, and, on the other hand, facilitate the legal assessment of fakes.