Remember the times we thought that a war could break out over memes shared on the internet? Right, now the memes are shared about war after it has started. Although, why is this war between Russia and Ukraine called a TikTok war? This war isn’t on TikTok since cities are actually being nuked and there are a lot of deaths and casualties.
A few years after World War II, A war broke out between USA and Russia. This war wasn’t physical, it was just a mere race to become the first Superpower. The Russians sent a man to the moon? We’ll send them too! This war was termed Coldwar as it was a conflict over ideological differences carried on by methods short of sustained overt military action and usually without breaking off diplomatic relations.
Fast forward to now, this isn’t just a conflict of Ideology, This is a real war! How is it associated with an app used by young people to dance and lip-sync?
TikTok’s Ukraine-related content has skyrocketed since the country was invaded on February 24, with videos tagged #Ukraine surpassing 30.5 billion views as of March 17. It was discovered that Ukraine content on TikTok outperforms content on platforms more than twice its size.
According to a paper published by Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media titled TikTok, the War on Ukraine, and 10 Features That Make the App Vulnerable to Misinformation, TikTok has a number of features that make it uniquely vulnerable to such issues.
Its core features make it ideal for remixing media, allowing users to upload videos and sound clips without attribution, making it difficult to contextualize and fact-check videos, according to the paper. According to the researchers, this has created an online environment in which “it is difficult – even for skilled journalists and researchers – to distinguish truth from conspiracy theory, parody, and fabrication.”
As per the researchers, the app’s design features make it easy for misinformation to spread. Users mostly post anonymously; the date of upload for videos is not prominently displayed, complicating attempts to contextualise content; and the newsfeed structure – with each video taking up the entire screen of a user – makes it difficult to seek out additional sources.
TikTok, like many other social media platforms, has been scrambling to keep up with the onslaught of misinformation about the Ukraine war.
The platform is managed by a combination of algorithms and human moderators, according to spokeswoman Jamie Favazza, with teams speaking more than 60 languages and dialects, including Russian and Ukrainian. It has rushed the implementation of a state-controlled media policy in response to Russian entities’ propaganda.
Favazza stated that they are continuing to respond to the conflict in Ukraine with increased safety and security resources to detect emerging threats and remove harmful misinformation.
Meanwhile, TikTok has added digital literacy tips to its Discover page in order “to assist our community in evaluating and making decisions about the content they view online.” It has voluntarily released transparency reports about what content it has removed for years.
However, researchers say there is still work to be done. Despite these changes, some state-controlled media accounts, such as RT, remain on the app, despite the fact that access to them is prohibited in the EU.
The TikTok researcher, Richards, noted that a disinformation campaign she studied for a recent report is still active on the platform, with dozens of videos with the caption “Russian Lives Matter” receiving thousands of views.
A lot of influencers are also raising awareness about the issue and most of them are standing in favour of Ukraine. There are also a lot of Russian TikTok influencers who are reading from an identical script and speaking in favour of Russia.
According to experts, it is critical that legislators and the general public take this collision of massive power and little accountability seriously.
What are your thoughts on this TikTok war? Let us know in the comments.