Information Terrorism as a Tool of Hybrid Warfare and a Destructive Factor of the Media Space

The article analyzes the phenomenon of information terrorism, which has acquired new features in the context of globalization and the development of modern information technologies. The specifics of this concept are outlined. The fundamental differences between information, media and cyberterrorism are determined. The author emphasizes that the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine, the outbreak of hybrid warfare, large-scale information and psychological special operations, disinformation campaigns and cyber-attacks have become part of the modern information space. All this requires a new approach to the analysis of information terrorism. The article presents the main tools and principles of information terrorism. It defines the characteristic features of information terrorism and its manifestations in the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian hybrid warfare. Two key points of intersection between media and terrorism are emphasized. The first is mass media broadcasting of acts of terror; the second is the use of mass media, social networks and other communication tools by terrorists for their purposes. Information terrorism destroys the media system and causes powerful psychological pressure in combination with disinformation campaigns, the spread of fakes and deepfakes, the spread of information viruses, the use of manipulative technologies, the strengthening of psychological pressure with the help of the media, the broadcast of the enemy’s ideas with the help of mass culture products, and the use of new propaganda tools. Information terrorism introduces an imbalance in the work of the media industry, which cannot continue to function according to the old rules. An important question arises in this context – the country’s and its citizens’ media security level. Media terrorism gains new opportunities in the virtual world - a world in which people seek to escape from the brutal reality. Instead, they enter the world of manipulation and propaganda, where the tools of «soft power» combined with manipulative technologies, disinformation campaigns, intimidation, and the use of the whip and gingerbread method, form a distorted reality.