The War of Humor: A Visual Content Analysis of Israel’s Information Warfare in France and Spain

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Author(s) Ninon Bouteloup
Contact Ninon Bouteloup, Charles University, Smetanovo nábř. 6, Praha 1, 110 01, CZ. Email: bouteloup.iss@gmail.com
Issue CyberOrient, Vol. 19, Iss. 2, 2025, pp. 4-41
Published December 14, 2025
Type Article
Abstract While humor has invested all areas of society, it is still largely considered as an epiphenomenon in international security studies and a second-rank topic when it comes to information warfare. This article explores to what extent humor functions as a key component of information warfare, with a focus on Israeli visual messaging in France and Spain in the digital space. Using qualitative visual content analysis of humor-based tweets, it investigates how humor is a multifunctional tool of information warfare with a tactical, a social and an affective-cognitive dimension. Humor is tactical because it is very rarely incidental but calculated on purpose to serve broader goals. It is social because it creates relationships between individuals by unifying and differentiating. It is ultimately affective-cognitive because it shapes how people think and make sense of things while playing with emotions. This research contributes to the growing understanding of humor not only as entertainment but as a weapon of war.
Keywords social media, Humor, Information Warfare, Qualitative Visual Content Analysis, Israel
DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/cyo2.70004