Propaganda, paranoia & the war on the net

The one thing that people on both sides of the current Middle-Eastern conflict can agree on is that media coverage of the war is hopelessly biased in favour of one side. Their only point of disagreement is which side that is.

As a result conflict has spread beyond the borders of Lebanon onto a new, virtual front as bloggers, posters and commentators of every persuasion make information the new currency of the conflict.

Recognising that "today's conflicts are won by public opinion", the Israeli public affairs department has launched an initiative to counter what it believes to be "negative bias and a tide of pro-Arab propaganda" in the online debate: a website called giyus.org [Give Israel Your United Support].

The website offers free software called Megaphone, that alerts users to internet polls, discussions, articles and surveys related to the conflict, and allows them to vote in Israel's favour by simply clicking a button.

The Israeli public affairs ministry wants 100,000 people to download Megaphone [at the time of writing they are at around 25,000] and help swing the direction of the online debate. In addition to the Israeli public, the World Union of Jewish Students has assembled a team to work on Megaphone full-time, indicating the importance now attached to the web.

It is not just the Israelis that have recognised the importance of the internet; Muslim groups around the world are also taking action. The UK-based Muslim Public Affairs Council, has set up a "Media Jihad", to help Muslims prevent "the deployment of the media machine to tarnish and destroy the good reputation of the Ummah [Muslim nation]."

Their Jihad consists of publishing a list of "Islamophobic" journalists to complain about, tips on writing press releases and letters of complaint to media organisations and guidelines of how Muslim citizens can influence the media.

These campaigns represent officialdom waking up to what has been a grass-roots phenomenon – the internet as a public-relations weapon. Nowhere was this more visible than in the aftermath of the Israeli bombing of Qana, which spawned web-based conspiracy theories that before long were making prime-time headlines.

The information war appeals to those with an ethnic or religious affiliation to one side or the other in the conflict but have no place at the front line. Thus, discussion forums and video-sharing websites have become the new battleground for supporters of both sides to try to discredit their opponents.

The certainty with which both sides decry the bias of traditional media against them however, is making much of this battleground a home to propaganda and paranoia, as well as occasionally reasoned debate.