Information Warfare and War Propaganda on Social Media: A Case Study of Afghanistan

Abstract

This thesis examines the information warfare and war propaganda of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (IRA) and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA). It focuses on how the IRA and the IEA used social media (Twitter) as an instrument for information warfare and the dissemination of war propaganda during the fall of the Republic, from June until the end of August 2021. Content analysis and thematic analysis are the primary research methods employed to scrutinize a simple of 1200 tweets from both sides. The study finds that Afghanistan was a zone of war propaganda during the past two decades, which affected political discourse about Afghanistan. The IEA's ideological war propaganda was intertwined with the Islamic, cultural, and historical narratives; however, the IRA used nationalistic, constitutional, and global discourse on terrorism to counter the opposition. The study also indicates that war propaganda not only contributed to the collapse of the Republic but also has negative impacts on the legitimacy and recognition of the IEA in the post-war period.