Social Media “Image Operations” During the Tigray War (2020–2022)

This article examines the use of social media images during the Tigray War (2020–2022), one of the world’s deadliest armed conflicts of the 21st century. Drawing on a corpus of 92.9 million tweets and over 500,000 images shared on Twitter, we analyse what types of images were shared by the opposing sides of the conflict and what specific functions these images served in antagonistic information campaigns. The article shows how images were used not only to amplify the opposing strategic narratives about war but also to shape the emotional or affective registers related to it. The pro-Tigray campaign relied on the heavy use of emotive images of casualties as well as images of material destruction, which, combined with the use of infographics, collectively conveyed victimhood with the goal of putting pressure on the Ethiopian government and its allies. The pro-government side, in turn, relied more on images that tried to evoke patriotism and resistance in the audience, organise protests, as well as represent a stance of anti-colonial defiance against international pressure. The article contributes to the growing literature on digital media in contemporary conflicts by proposing a novel research framework and methodology and providing original empirical findings on an understudied dimension of contemporary conflicts.