Digital warfare transforming political rhetoric: social media (ab)use and the Ethiopia war of 2020-2022

This article analyses key aspects of the armed conflict during the so-called “Tigray War” of 2020-2022 in northern Ethiopia, focusing on the “digital warfare” that accompanied it. I argue that the physical war was enhanced by its digital media representation, which negatively impacted (global) media reporting. Via an analysis of repeated aggressive and loaded digital memes I describe (digital) political rhetoric and its loose relation to verifiable facts on the ground. A discursive domain of misinformation and semi-fictitious appearances was created that perpetuated conflict and made open, truth-oriented fact-finding difficult: current digital media allow political rhetoric to massively go beyond the conventions of shared discursive exchange. The case study shows that beyond the analysis of digital and news media products new ways have to be found to “reality-check” or reduce these representations to themes amenable for public dialogue and eventual shared compromise.