Mobile phones in war and conflict | Remarkable mobiles series

Mobile phones in war and conflict.

While mobiles are often associated with wasted time on social media and cat memes, around the world mobiles are used in remarkable ways and are shaping history and the political landscape. In this series of posts we’ll look at the remarkable ways mobiles are changing society.

On 25 January 2011 hundreds of thousands of protesters started to gather in Tahrir Square and planted the seeds of unrest which, days later, finally unseated the incumbent president, Hosni Mubarak, after 30 years of power.

Almost a year after Tunisia had erupted in mass demonstrations, the central Cairo protests triggered further waves of change across the Middle East and North Africa, in what became known as the Arab Spring.

But while the nature of each pro-democracy uprising, and their ultimate success, varied wildly from country to country, they had one defining characteristic in common: use of social media on mobile phones.

And while none of these conflicts happened because of mobile phones or social media, they were enabled by it.

Fast forward to Putin’s war on Ukraine, and mobile phones are being used again in surprising ways. From documenting human rights abuses to crowd sourced espionage, through to locating targets and as the console to control drones. In his article ‘How mobile phones are changing war in Ukraine’, author Sascha Brodsky notes;

“The outcome of the conflict in Ukraine may ultimately rely on which side wins the information war and that, in large part, will be waged over mobile phones. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has won billions of dollars in aid for his country through the skillful use of appeals on television and internet appearances.”

In addition to the information war, mobile phones are also playing a very practical purpose and have been used in military tasks from mapping minefields or wire-tapping the enemy or even targeting the artillery fire.

Of course, Ukrainian soldiers were already using mobile phones to communicate with their families, commanders and fellow soldiers. Then they became an instrument of war too.