Cyber War

Cyber War is the conduct of military operations by virtual warfare. Psychologically, propaganda is a form of information warfare. In this case study, the Russians utilized social media ads to influence the direction of the 2016 presidential election. That particular election was very controversial because it was very difficult too chose a likely candidate. It was between an internet troll and a so-called “liar”. So of course when the candidates went head-to-head there was a lot to be said about each other.

What wasn’t expected was an outside country participating in the slandering on another candidate. I believe that this is a form of cyberwar because Russia was able to command and control certain ads on popular social media websites, Facebook and Twitter,  to discredit the democratic party and its candidate. In other ways, this could just be a form of free speech which means that everybody is entitled to there own opinion. Ethically, it is wrong for Russia to refer to Hillary as the devil and Trump as a Jesus. 

Politically it is unfair for Russia to purchase social media ads and discredit the democratic party in a religious way. Business-wise it was clever to put ads like that out there in terms of the election there can only be one winner so everything is at stake.