Tactics and affordances in the mediatization of war: pro-Ukrainian cyber resistance on Telegram

When Russia escalated its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, pro-Ukrainian resisters around the world took to cyber and digital spaces to support Ukraine’s cause. Social media platform Telegram played a vital role in coordinating and mobilizing action transnationally, foregrounding the impact of platform design and use in the trajectory of war’s mediatization. Our study contributes to empirical research and theory around cyber resistance tactics and platform affordances. We use qualitative thematic analysis to examine Telegram posts from the first two months of the full-scale invasion on select pro-Ukrainian resistance channels, identifying a range of tactics constructed within Telegram. This includes a phenomenon of “kitting” whereby capable members and moderators provide tools and templates, along with guidance, to participants to lower the access barrier to cyber resistance. We discuss Telegram’s affordances in relation to these tactics and, noting how Telegram is used to coordinate action on other social media, we propose a model of user-affordances interaction in a multiplatform media environment. Lastly, we provide suggestions for designers and policymakers regarding platform designs in broadly coordinated cyber resistance.