Leiden University Student Repository

Fraters, Ben (2023)

Pronounce Nonsense, And Let Slip the Doges of War: An Analysis of the Creation and Tactics of the North Atlantic Fellas Organisation

Executive master thesis | International Relations and Diplomacy (MSc)

NAFO is a group of digital activists, primarily on Twitter, that seek to oppose Russian attempts to frame the discourse on the invasion of Ukraine. In this paper, I interviewed five members of the organisation and subjected the resulting interviews to thematic analysis. The results show that NAFO as an organisation is shaped by the medium it operates on, being a highly decentralised group relying on grassroots action and leveraging the features of social media to effectively shape public opinion in favour of Ukraine through ridiculing Russian propagandists, using memes to convey their message, and flooding Russian propaganda accounts through mass-reports and dogpiles while relying on intragroup connectivity to ensure rapid response times. I also identified problems the organisation faces: the low barrier of entry meaning it’s easy for impostors to enter the group and attempt to disrupt it, and the ‘always-on’ nature of social media putting NAFO members at risk of burnout.

Meme, Memes, NAFO, Ukraine, Russia, Digital Conflict, Memetics, Social Media, Twitter

Author

Fraters, Ben

Faculty

Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs

Specialisation

Digital Memetics

Supervisors

Bobiç, M.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en