The most important platform – because it is the most widely used in Russia and Ukraine – is still holding back: Telegram, a company founded by the Russian brothers Durov. Telegram has threatened to close down war-related channels because fake news is spreading rapidly and unchecked. So far, however, they only threatened.

Many Ukrainians and Russians have therefore already switched to alternatives: Cloudflare recorded a massive increase in the use of Signal since shortly after midnight on 24 February – at the same time as the Russian invasion began. Signal is considered the most secure private messaging app by cyber security experts.

Whether Telegram will follow suit with stricter controls will become clear in the coming days. But the other big platforms seem to have realised that they cannot claim a monopoly on global communication and networking without taking responsibility for it at the same time.

As German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in her speech to the UN General Assembly: "In a situation where war and peace are at stake, you have to decide whether you are on the side of the aggressor or on the side of families, of children hiding in underground shafts from bomb and missile attacks." The major social media platforms have now chosen sides.

The Russian government spread rumours at the beginning of the attack that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had fled – and was immediately refuted by his video series directly from Kiev.

Vladimir Putin claimed that the Ukrainian government was led by "a gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis" – on social networks everyone could make up their own minds.

One thing is certain: The Ukrainian government uses social media with a speed and virtuosity that makes Putin's pompous propaganda spectacle with its bizarrely large panels and rehearsed pseudo-debates appear old-fashioned.

Zelensky in particular has risen in record time from politically inexperienced comedian to war hero in social media. His experience and charisma as an actor and director clearly work to his advantage: he gave his first speech in a suit, but since then he has swapped his tie for a green military shirt. He shoots his videos in Ukrainian, Russian and English, with clear announcements in Twitter-suitable precision. Every day he gains hundreds of thousands of followers, and 4.40 million people now follow him on Twitter.

When the US offered him the chance to leave the country with their help, Zelensky replied: "I need ammunition, not a ride." It was this sentence that cemented his hero status for all Ukrainians.

But there is one thing in particular that is decisive: without truthfulness, Zelensky's production would be nothing. Because Zelensky actually stayed in Kiev and did not flee, because he actually stands by his soldiers and volunteer fighters, because Russia is actually the aggressor and Ukraine has to defend itself – only because Zelensky also does what he says and says what he does, his communication on social media works. He has bet on the two most important social media currencies and won: Authenticity and credibility. 

"History is written by the winners" is a well-known saying. And in times of information monopolies it certainly had its justification. In the editorial society, however, news or information monopolies no longer exist. Therefore, this sentence can no longer apply. It belongs to the past.
 
Never before have so many people had such immediate access to so much information, sources and channels. Never before has a war been documented so extensively. Even his own population cannot be completely cut off from the stream of news by Putin, as proven by the courageous anti-war demonstrators in Moscow who take to the streets despite threats of imprisonment and violence.

Whoever wins this war – the whole world can watch it live. Because the editorial society cannot be switched off. It is always-on.

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