Information terrorism as instrument of influence on the information conversion in the global environment.

Abstract

The article examines the forms in which modern information terrorism manifests itself, and is basically cyberterrorism and media-terrorism. It is proved that these forms arise, first of all, due to lack of knowledge of the population and the reluctance to analyze the information received from the media, the environment or authorities; in the second, because of the desire of the leadership of the state or a specific person to control the social and political behavior of citizens. At the same time, it is noted that the confrontation with information terrorism and conformism faces problems, including: digital inequality in access to information and communication facilities of different sections of the population; insufficient legal regulation; information gap of the Third World countries from developed countries; control of information space on the part of state institutions through censorship, gatekeeping; protection of information space from unauthorized interference and hacker attacks, etc. The world community and individual countries are successfully taking steps to protect their information space from psychological (through soft power) and cyber-attacks; appropriate structures are being created, specialized training is provided to overcome informational abysses and digital divide – phenomena that characterize asymmetry in access to information sources in different subjects. The digital divide is one of the main problems of the development of information space and information society. It is stressed that the state can overcome the information gap and digital inequality, making new technologies more accessible to less well-off sections of society, and organize computer literacy training, especially for young people and the elderly.