How propaganda exploits the infrastructure of truth: A case study of #IStandWithPutin

Abstract

This paper investigates the #IStandWithPutin hashtag campaign as a case study to conceptualise “infrastructural propaganda,” an influence strategy that manipulates the invisible processes and systems underpinning attention economies and knowledge production. Drawing from communication and media studies, philosophy, political science, and cognitive psychology, the paper explores how inauthentic networks of bots and trolls co-opted and targeted genuine online networks to game platform algorithms, manage attention, manufacture visibility, and construct “truth markets”—competitive epistemic spaces where facts are undermined by alternative modes of sensemaking. By stoking participatory culture and activism, the #IStandWithPutin campaign reframed Russia's invasion of Ukraine from an unequivocal, factual violation of international law into a contested ethical and pragmatic debate, bypassing traditional mechanisms of fact-checking and verification. Situating this tactic within historical and contemporary propaganda techniques, the paper advances critical communication scholarship by revealing how resource-rich actors exploit hybrid information systems to reshape the very operation of truth. The analysis concludes by reflecting on the broader implications of infrastructural propaganda and proposing strategies for fostering resilience in digital knowledge ecosystems.