Young Ukrainians Fighting Russian Disinformation on TikTok and Telegram

UK media is report­ing on young Ukraini­ans try­ing to com­bat Russ­ian dis­in­for­ma­tion efforts on apps such as Telegram and Tik­Tok. From the BBC report’s con­clu­sion:

Mis­in­for­ma­tion is a prob­lem social media com­pa­nies have been grap­pling with for some time. Now their poli­cies are com­ing under fresh scruti­ny. Meta, which owns Face­book and Insta­gram, along with Twit­ter and Google, have all announced com­mit­ments to tack­le false infor­ma­tion and pro­pa­gan­da around the war in Ukraine. But it’s apps like Telegram and Tik­Tok — used a lot by young Ukraini­ans — is where much of this dis­in­for­ma­tion con­tin­ues to pro­lif­er­ate. Tik­Tok told the BBC it has “increased resources to respond to emerg­ing trends and remove viola­tive con­tent, includ­ing harm­ful mis­in­for­ma­tion and pro­mo­tion of vio­lence.” Telegram did not respond to our request for com­ment. It’s clear that what’s hap­pen­ing online is caus­ing even more pan­ic and pain in the real world. “We are scared by those who cre­ate this fake infor­ma­tion,” Ali­na tells me, ready to head yet again down to the base­ment as the air raid siren rings out.

Read the rest here.

Over the last week, the Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) has been report­ing on poten­tial covert vehi­cles for Russ­ian influ­ence oper­a­tions in light of state-backed media shut­downs. We have iden­ti­fied Tik­Tok and Telegram as the most promi­nent examples.