Pomerantsev: New technologies don’t change essence of propaganda

Modern propaganda is influenced by developing technologies, but it also has a component that remains unchanged at all times.

That’s according to a British journalist, author, and long-term researcher of propaganda Peter Pomerantsev, who spoke in an interview with Ukrinform.

“Technology’s always developing and propaganda develops with technology. It always has done so. Whatever Chat GPT will come next, or Deep Fake… So in that sense, propaganda is always reinventing itself. But the more I look at it, and I've been looking at historically a lot as well for my new book, the more also stays the same," the expert noted.

He clarified that he meant the of “who can understand people better, understand their motivations better, and who's going to win that race – the propagandists or those who want to communicate democratic values.”

"And it's about tapping into people's anger and hatred, and making that hatred normal, and creating environment where you can commit different types of crimes. So none of that changes. That stays the same from century to century. And from technology to technology. It comes down to something very old and human. And about good and evil," the expert concluded.

As reported, Peter Pomerantsev believes it is a paradox that many technologies, including social engineering, were developed precisely in the West, but they have been developing primarily around elections or advertising and are not being used in information warfare, in the reality already embraced by Russia, China, Iran, and terrorists.