Social networks: a tool for political manipulations?

The article analyzes the role of social networks in political processes, both in foreign and domestic policies. The author studies the place of social networks in the modern political sphere, considering it in more detail in the context of the activation of disinformation tools in the framework of information wars, paying special attention to the manipulation of information. The paper draws attention to the attempts to control the veracity of information undertaken by a number of media. Using the OSINT method, the author conducts fact checking of a number of publications devoted to the special military operation conducted by Russia. The paper uses the example of the US elections as well as how celebrities urge people to vote, and Russian example of how the celebrities shared the information about social payments. The author draws a conclusion about the serious importance of social networks in modern political life, and predicts a further increase in interest in the digital sphere and an increasing digitalization of politics. In turn, social networks, according to the author, are becoming a platform for multilateral dialogue and policy conductors and a tool for open feedback from the population.