< img src = "/uploads/blogs/6e/b9/ib-FS162tj7o_499ea2a6.jpg" Alt = "memes turned into weapons: Scientists have stated that they were used to ignite conflicts"/> ~ ~ ~ < p > all rarely starts with a noise. Before the conflict, it often boils quietly in the background in the form of distrust in society, a rapid rhetoric and a continuous flow of visual information, which ignites enmity and distorts reality. And memes are its central part, scientists consider.
< p > About it writes & nbsp; the Conversation.
< P > Today preparation for global conflicts is increasingly happening on social networks, not at whispering meetings or in the smoke of military rooms. On digital arenas filled with fake images, cordant memes and videos with weapons, whole society is pushed to riots with one finger.
~ < p > what do these visual signals actually mean and how they act as heralds of political violence & mdash; a question that scientists begin to answer with amazing clarity.
< p >Professor of the Faculty of University of Nort-Dam, & nbsp; Tim Wenger, and & Nbsp; Ernesto Verdeh, Associate Professor < p > their research, published in the journal & nbsp; information, communication and socialty, showed that such changes are not accidental & mdash; They are systematic, strategic and deep. For example, a few days before Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian microbloggi filled the application for sharing Telegram messages with manipulated images and instigating posts.
~ ~ < P > Activity Surprinting was obvious: the total number of messages increased by almost 9,000%, and the number of image manipulations & mdash; more than 5 000%.< p >This influx of edited images, from misleading memes, was not accidental to deeply distorted photos. It was calculated by maneuver to influence perception, justify aggression and put opponents incompetent or inhuman.
< P > One of the memes ridiculed the Anti -Putin journalist Arkady Babchenko, using the superimposed text and replaced faces to humiliate his staged murder with Ukrainian intelligence. The phrase “gamers do not die, they are revived” was not just an online gum & mdash; It was a rhetorical weapon intended for ridicule and delegitimation.
< p >To identify and decipher these images, the Notre Dama command used a set of artificial intelligence tools specifically designed to detect digital changes. But no matter how advanced these systems may be, artificial intelligence alone cannot catch political subtleties or cultural references laid in images.
< p > for example, a fake image of France Macron, who sits next to a Ukrainian official, can be rejected by a car. However, for the political scientist, this reflects an attempt to doubt among Ukrainians in European solidarity, opposing the courage of one group and indecision of another.
< P > The innovation of the team is to combine computing power with human insight. AI group visually similar content, but to unpack the meaning, linking manipulation schemes with broader narratives and geopolitical programs, is proved by experts.
~ ~ < p > thus they convert data to prediction. Visual memes that were previously considered a digital little thing now become the most important indicators < P > A convincing conclusion is the huge scale of visual internet war. This study alone analyzed more than 6 million messages and 3 million images of almost a thousand Telegram accounts. And this is only one corner of the Internet.
< p > Since world conflicts continue not only with the help of weapons, but also with the help of pixels, understanding how people manipulate people becomes extremely important. For politicians, this work offers more than just understanding & mdash; This is a warning system, a chance to notice the storm before it explodes.