<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Employing a perspective informed by brand management, this article aims at understanding information warfare operations in social media. The state, seen as brand, must project an image of itself to both internal and foreign audiences to unite the domestic audience and/or attract global support. However, in constructing a brand, states are vulnerable to ‘sofa warriors’ – ordinary individuals who have been unwittingly recruited by hostile actors to disseminate (over social media or other platforms) a counter-brand, harmful to the state concerned. These new threats are investigated in light of recent tendencies in online branding, elucidating their status as a national security threat, with the potential to significantly disrupt life in political communities.</p></abstract>

Employing a perspective informed by brand management, this article aims at understanding information warfare operations in social media. The state, seen as brand, must project an image of itself to both internal and foreign audiences to unite the domestic audience and/or attract global support. However, in constructing a brand, states are vulnerable to ‘sofa warriors’ – ordinary individuals who have been unwittingly recruited by hostile actors to disseminate (over social media or other platforms) a counter-brand, harmful to the state concerned. These new threats are investigated in light of recent tendencies in online branding, elucidating their status as a national security threat, with the potential to significantly disrupt life in political communities.

Information Warfare on Social Media: A Brand Management Perspective

Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy

Baltic Journal of Law & Politics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Information Warfare on Social Media: A Brand Management Perspective"}

Employing a perspective informed by brand management, this article aims at understanding information warfare operations in social media. The state, seen as...

Information Warfare on Social Media: A Brand Management Perspective

Published Online: Oct 25, 2017

Page range: 35 - 62

Received: Apr 02, 2017

Accepted: Jun 14, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/bjlp-2017-0002

Keywords
Sofa warriors, social media, branding, security threats, information warfare

© 2017 Ignas Kalpokas, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Information Warfare on Social Media: A Brand Management Perspective

Published Online: Oct 25, 2017

Page range: 35 - 62

Received: Apr 02, 2017

Accepted: Jun 14, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/bjlp-2017-0002

KeywordsSofa warriors, social media, branding, security threats, information warfare

© 2017 Ignas Kalpokas, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Sofa warriors, social media, branding, security threats, information warfare