Thousands of fake accounts spreading disinformation about the Russian-Ukrainian war have been found on the Chinese social network TikTok. This was reported by CNBC, UNN, citing a TikTok report.
Details
According to the platform, posts on the video-sharing site were directed at Ukrainian, Russian and many European users, with content intended to "artificially reinforce pro-Russian narratives" about the war.
Some accounts were even falsely labeled as news outlets.
Most of the fake accounts - more than 12,000 - identified by TikTok were operated from Russia and spread Kremlin military propaganda in local languages in Ukraine, Russia, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Serbia, Czech Republic, Poland, and Greece.
However, some of the identified accounts were operated from Ukraine and were found to be "artificially amplifying narratives aimed at raising funds for the Ukrainian military."
According to TikTok, the total number of followers of the fake accounts exceeded one million, although videos posted on the platform are usually viewed by millions of people.
Addendum
Earlier, UNN reported that a separate investigation by the BBC found 800 fake accounts that targeted European countries with false claims that high-ranking Ukrainian officials and their relatives had bought luxury cars or villas abroad after Russia's invasion in February 2022. Investigators are convinced that these videos have an obvious purpose - to undermine Western support
A TikTok spokesperson told CNBC that the company had already started investigating these accounts before the BBC investigation and that all the fake accounts found had been deleted.
To recap,
According to Andriy Yusov, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Russia is planning a disinformation campaign to weaken international support for Ukraine as critical decisions about its future approach.