When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, some of social media's youngest users experienced the conflict from the front lines on TikTok. Users saw videos of people huddling and crying in bomb shelters, heard booming explosions in the background, and saw missiles streaking across Ukrainian cities. A jarring change from the platform’s usual content of fashion advice, fitness tips, and viral dance videos.
Many Ukrainian social media influencers shared sad scenes of themselves in underground bunkers and army tanks rolling down residential streets. They urged their followers to donate to support the Ukrainian military and demanded Russian users to join anti-war efforts.
Russian influencers have also taken to the app to share their reaction. Niki Proshin, who has over 763,000 TikTok followers, said in a video that "normal people" in Russia do not support the Russian government’s actions. "None of my friends and none of the people I personally talk to supported [the invasion of Ukraine]," he said.
Unfortunately, it is also very common to share misinformation on this platform as well. Footage of military simulator video game Arma 3, images of explosions from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Gaza Strip, old footage of heavy firing and animations of flying aircraft were shared on social media sites as if they depicted the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
A TikTok spokesperson said the platform added extra resources to moderate posts related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and added that the site works closely with fact-checking organizations to stop the spread of misinformation.
*Sourced from the Reuters story “TikTok war: How Russia's invasion of Ukraine played to social media's youngest audience” by Sheila Dang and Elizabeth Culliford – https://www.reuters.com/technology/tiktok-war-how-russias-invasion-ukraine-played-social-medias-youngest-audience-2022-03-01/
