Global “Hybrid” Аctors of Information Interference in the Contemporary Political Processes

Abstract

This article is devoted to issues related to the study of the current practice of the Internet transformation in terms of its technological evolution. The paper shows that at the present stage of development of the digital space, global actors are functioning and operating in hybrid modes, and attempting to establish total control over information and communication flows in the online environment. The diversity of relationships of this kind of actors forms the current practice of informational confrontation in the political sphere, characterized by the growing implementation of mass consciousness manipulation technologies on the Internet based on collecting confidential user data and analyzing their “digital traces”. The article analyzes not only traditional state actors but also such modern actors as large IT corporations, as well as terrorist organizations. Under the conditions of competition for dominance in the public digital space and the possibility of obtaining direct communication access to online users such structures ignore the presence of sovereign national segments of the Internet, carrying out an extraterritorial intrusion into national information systems, which creates new types of threats to national security in a highly diverse competitive relationship in the digital environment for the right to dominate in the information and communication sphere. The paper concludes that at the present stage of the technological evolution of the Internet space there are severe risks of forming a system of global control and manipulative dominance on the part of the actors of the “hybrid” type pursuing different interests, which can directly affect the transformation of traditional formats of information and communication confrontation in the global policy space.