If you’ve been on the internet since 2013, good chances are you have encountered at least one doge. Just like the word, it’s a dog… kind of.
What was initially born as a simple cute picture of a kindergarten teacher’s dog became a huge meme, being used, changed and shared among thousands of different internet communities. I’m pretty sure even my mom has sent me one at some point. How does that cute and seemingly dumb dog turn into the symbol of Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s propaganda and misinformation war?
You heard me right. Let me introduce you to NAFO, the North Atlantic Fellas Organization. Their mission? Exactly that, supporting Ukrainian forces in the still-ongoing struggle against Russian invasion. Their methods? Well… shitposting.
NAFO can be understood as an internet community that took the usual tendency of turning anything into a meme a bit further than usual, only this time for a good cause.
Mostly active on Twitter and Reddit, NAFO’s most recognizable symbol is the Fella, a customized and readapted version of the famous doge meme, oftentimes in Ukrainian military outfits.
These Fellas are supposed to represent every person that supports Ukraine, either by donating to the cause, buying official NAFO merch, or simply trolling pro-Kremlin accounts. For the average Fella, the highest ambition is that to be blocked by a Russian politician.
How do they achieve such a high honor? Well, simply by scouting the digital environment in which the Russian invasion also takes place. Fellas, or Fellas-adjacent accounts, navigate social media and forums with the primary goal of finding “vatniks”. This name, of Russian origin, is a derogatory term associated with individuals who are deemed to not be letting go of the past – as in, missing the Soviet Union (Devlin, 2017).
Fellas usually target Kremlin-adjacent accounts, be they official politicians or normal individuals, and taunt them with anti-Russian memes or mere conversations about military or political matters. Once they get their attention, they further engage them in absurd conversations, with the sole intent of getting blocked on the platform.
As absurd as it may sound, this silly pastime easily turned into a global movement, counting thousands of active members worldwide.
This movement has come so far as to collaborate with the brand Saint Javelin, an online retailer whose whole mission is to gather funding to aid Ukraine. In particular, NAFO-related merch’s proceedings are completely devolved to helping frontline defenders (NAFO FELLAS, n.d.).
What initially started as mere fun pastime for normal guys trying to get a quick laugh online, soon started in a global movement that actively tries to contrast propaganda and help out through the power of memes.
SOCIAL MEDIA WARFARE
I can’t wrap my head around what this phenomenon could really entail. It genuinely feels like a hybrid of different types of conflict. On one hand, there is the aspect of information warfare, as the main targets of these Fellas are users associated with pro-Russia propaganda. On the other hand, it is a media warfare in the sense that it tries to gain popularity within the cyberspace by how it uses popular, as in, of the people, “tools”, such as memes. Social media warfare? It is a newly coined term and its use may apply to the situation – “the use of social media as a kind of weapon with the aim of causing lasting damage to certain actors such as governments or companies.” (“What Is Social Media Warfare?,” 2020).
Social media warfare is a recently-coined term, which deems it as a tool of hybrid warfare. If there is something that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has shown us, it is that hybrid warfare touching digital media has been rampant in examples and wide in reach. Not only that, but this tool has allowed for “safe” civilian involvement like never before.
REFERENCES
Devlin, A. M. (2017). Lard-eaters, gay-ropeans, sheeple and prepositions: Lexical and syntactic devices employed to position the other in Russian online political forums. Russian Journal of Communication, 9(1), 53–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/19409419.2016.1219642
NAFO FELLAS. (n.d.). Saint Javelin. Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://www.saintjavelin.com/collections/fellas-of-nafo
What is Social Media Warfare? (2020, June 12). PREVENCY®. https://prevency.com/en/what-is-social-media-warfare/
Wow! You explained a topic I have never heard of in very simple terms. I wasn’t aware that such a movement was happening! I guess that their way of promoting themselves is a very easy way to get younger people involved via a gateway already familiar to them: the meme.
All in all, I think you did a good job explaining the topic!
It is funny to me that in your algorithm this dog has passed many times where as I have never seen or heard of this dog meme. This really shows the power of algorithm and how it can make it seem for you like everyone has seen it, while at the same time in my reality and world this dog has never crossed any of my pages. 🙂 Liked the article!
This is so funny and so beautiful to me – thank you for this post. I think it’s such a nice way to deal with something so cruel and terrible as war. Not everyone is able to go out in the front lines and participate in physical fights, but the existence of something like this not only allows people to get involved, but to get educated as well. I think general online activism tends to die down eventually and this is something you can notice with the war in Ukraine as well – as things progress and there isn’t as much action anymore, media coverage tends to die down. This, on the other hand, keeps people involved in a fun, yet serious and interesting way. And what better way to do it than with Doge 🙂