Russian Disinformation Campaign Targets Ukraine Mobilization on TikTok

A large Russian network of profiles created to discredit the Territorial Centers of Recruitment, Social Support and Mobilization in Ukraine was discovered on TikTok. Texty.org.ua reported that a network of more than 2,000 accounts revolved around the hashtag "this is not my Ukraine" to discredit the mobilization process. "The numbers were impressive: 41 thousand posts in a week, 10 million views - incredible results for a hashtag that didn't actually exist a month ago," reported joiurnalists in the article.

All the detected accounts were stylistically similar, like clones: the same avatars and account names, identical descriptions, and the same videos with which each account was trying to spam the Ukrainian TikTok. "They are administered by a Russian entity that also advertises online casinos in Russia," the publication says.

Popular hashtags on TikTok

The publication added that the most dangerous thing was that despite those videos looking like artificial and being not very credible, the hashtag #this is not my Ukraine has become a trending topic.

This means that real users could start using it. The journalists gathered all data concerning the mentioned accounts. "We hope that in the near future all profiles (as well as the numbers or email addresses to which they are linked) will be blocked and removed from the platform," said the journalists.

Russian disinformation is super active on TikTok - last December, the EU already exposed their farm, which spread fake news about Reznikov (former Ukrainian Defense Minister) to Europeans.

A couple of Russian accounts that repeat the inscription "???? ssbl??? ?? ???????? ??? ?? ???

TG"

This was the first high-profile exposure of 12,800 Russian TikTok bots.

"Even one poorly made, primitive Russian TikTok farm with 2,000 accounts, having guessed a hot topic, is able to collect more than 200,000 likes and receive more than 4 million views in a few weeks," the publication noted.