This material is a shortened version of an article which appeared in The Moscow Times
Whether you live in Moscow, Berlin, New York, Tokyo, Delhi or Buenos Aires, chances are you still think TikTok is some kind of marginal Chinese social network where teenagers from all over the world dance and sing. Not anymore, it isn’t.
Consider TikTok in Russia. The numbers are simply astounding. As of late 2019, 8 million Russians were on the platform, most of whom were, indeed, teenagers. But now, just one year later, the number of Russian users has skyrocketed to 20 million — most of whom are between 25 and 34 years of age.
A huge number of accounts is appearing with strange nicknames such as “user58311400.” These accounts have no accompanying photos, publish nothing of their own and have no subscribers. And now, they are starting to post aggressive comments that express the Kremlin’s propaganda in a nutshell: before Putin, everything was terrible; Putin is the best ruler in the world; the West dreams of destroying Russia; and opposition members in both Russia and Belarus are only Western puppets.
However, credit must be given to the older generation of TikTok users who have developed what during the pandemic we might call “anti-bodies” to such propaganda. They almost immediately identify the bots and trolls and openly ridicule them. Maybe this is why, at the end of 2020, the phrase “Putin is great” seems somehow unnatural on the internet.
Pro-Kremlin trolls invade TikTok as Chinese network gains massive popularity in RussiaRead More
