Information warfare in Libia. The online advance of Khalifa Haftar

General Khalifa Haftar’s attack on Tripoli has dragged Libya into a new civil war. Between 3rd and 4th April, the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA) from Cyrenaica launched an offensive against the forces of Tripolitania and the UN-supported Government of National Accord (GNA). In order for this operation to succeed, and for Haftar to take power, the General must necessarily build a form of legitimacy at both the local and international level. The war therefore takes place both on the military and on the political-diplomatic level. In this sense, the quality of propaganda and the evolution of online information flows related to Libyan events are of equal importance than developments on the ground.

This analysis focuses on the online side of the recent clashes in Libya in the period 1-14 April. Given the current Libyan context, it was decided to carry out the analysis through the perspective of Information Warfare, as it allows to examine the intertwining and correspondences between the development of kinetic actions on the ground and the presence of manipulation activities of the information and communicative ecosystem. The goal is to bring out manipulative activities online, and to underline how these can support specific perceptions of the war (both internally and internationally), as well as the ways in which they contribute to the construction of legitimacy for the belligerents, and in particular for Haftar.