2026 Iran-Gulf Crisis Tracker
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Propaganda & information warfare

How wartime propaganda works

Wartime propaganda is mostly old techniques applied to new platforms. Once you know the moves, the moves are visible.

Heroes and monsters

Foreground your own forces' restraint; foreground the other side's atrocities. Both can be true in any given incident. The choice of which to lead with is the propaganda.

Number wars

Casualty figures are routinely instrumentalised. Under-report your own losses; round-up the other side's. First-24-hour numbers are the most propagandistic; numbers tend to converge over a week.

Atrocity claims

Specific, vivid atrocity claims (often involving women and children) are common across all sides of all conflicts. Some are real. Some are entirely fabricated. Some are real but misattributed. Cross-checking against independent humanitarian organisations is the standard test.

Recycled footage

Footage from one incident is relabeled and republished as a different incident. Reverse-image search catches the majority within hours; the original misclaim still reaches more people.

Coordinated amplification

A sudden cluster of accounts pushing the same framing in the same wording, often immediately after a triggering event. The pattern is identifiable; the underlying claim still has to be evaluated on its own merits.

Related glossary terms

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