‘The platform where bot farms are still effective’ How Russia is leveraging TikTok's algorithm to try to warp public opinion in Ukraine — Meduza
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Russia has created thousands of TikTok accounts in an effort to influence public opinion in Ukraine, according to Ukrainska Pravda. The strategy takes advantage of TikTok’s algorithm, which allows even new accounts with no followers to go viral — making it the most effective platform in Ukraine for bot farms to spread pro-Kremlin propaganda. Meduza shares an English-language summary of Ukrainska Pravda’s report.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2468564

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Russia has created thousands of TikTok accounts in an effort to influence public opinion in Ukraine, […]. The strategy takes advantage of TikTok’s algorithm, which allows even new accounts with no followers to go viral — making it the most effective platform in Ukraine for bot farms to spread pro-Kremlin propaganda.

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Data from the research firm DataReportal shows that TikTok has 17 million users in Ukraine — more than both Instagram (12 million) and Facebook (13.9 million). In April 2024, Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation reported blocking several dozen TikTok channels spreading what it referred to as “enemy propaganda.” Among them were pages linked to anti-vaccine activist Ostap Stakhiv, pro-Russian journalist Diana Panchenko, and lawmaker Oleksandr Dubinsky, who is currently in jail awaiting trial on treason charges. But according to the center’s head, Andriy Kovalenko, taking down individual accounts is like “treating symptoms, not the disease.” He said the platform itself should be able to distinguish between disinformation and legitimate content.

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Russia’s playbook: first, a “bot farm,” a network of accounts with minimal information or followers, is set up. Then, an “emotional video” is created using either real footage or AI. The same video is posted across hundreds of these accounts within a day, and bots swarm in to like, comment, and “watch” the video all the way through to boost engagement. TikTok’s algorithm interprets this as genuine popularity and starts pushing the video to more users.

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AI and deepfake technology have also made it possible for Russia to create fake TikTok accounts posing as Ukrainian soldiers. In late March 2025 — during the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the Kursk region and amid statements by U.S. President Donald Trump about thousands of Ukrainian troops being surrounded — videos began appearing on TikTok that appeared to show Ukrainian soldiers recording their “last words.” The AI-generated men in the clips claimed that their commanders had abandoned them and that they were expecting to die there. According to Ukrainska Pravda, these videos racked up millions of views.

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