ne unique aspect about the war in Ukraine is people using social media to share developments 24/7. From Tweets, to TikToks, to Instagram posts, information is being shared so fast that some have called it the “most internet-accessible war in history.” Unfortunately, this accessibility goes beyond journalists, Ukrainian civilians, and Ukrainian soldiers documenting tragedy. Russia is using social media to spread its own narrative despite sanctions intended to alienate.
From Soviet posters and magazines to modern troll farms and social media ads, Russia has for decades been notorious for its propaganda – whether aimed at its own population or an international audience. In Russia, the government has mastered how to influence the population by suppressing reporters, spreading Kremlin messaging across traditional and digital media, and in March passing a law that threatens prison time for anyone publishing what authorities consider to be false information about the war.
Influencing those who are outside the country is much harder. For most of the last 20 years, Russia has relied on Kremlin-backed media like RT (previously Russia Today) and Sputnik to help spread misinformation and influence the West. New rounds of sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and restrictions by some social media outlets targeting Russian news sources and channels - Meta, YouTube, Reddit, Twitter and TikTok have restricted Russian state-affiliated media outlets to some degree. With these new restrictions in place, the Kremlin is facing a new challenge – how do they continue to influence Westerners and Russian-speaking people abroad and at home?
The answer they found is social media influencers.
Russians – from regular citizens to government officials – are bypassing restrictions on access to social media by using VPNs. With this tactic, they’re able to access not only social media platforms denied them by sanctions, but also platforms like Instagram, which the Russian government itself banned. Since Russians still have access to social media and influencers are not getting sanctioned, their content is rarely flagged. They are flourishing and spreading Russian propaganda to people both at home and abroad, which could have tragic consequences.
Unfortunately, it is extremely hard for social media companies to regulate influencers. There are millions of influencers on each platform, and very few of them have are verified, making them difficult to monitor. Technically if any influencer is paid to make a post and they don’t follow FTC and EU regulations, their post could be taken down. However, when there’s no physical advertising product in videos or photos, it’s hard to prove that someone took money to spread a particular message. So, Kremlin-backed influencers are thriving.
Recently, Vice uncovered a coordinated campaign in which the Kremlin employed influencers on TikTok with millions of followers. The influencers all read the same script, reciting anti-Ukraine messaging. The speeches were so identical that people created compilation videos of them all speaking at the same time, saying the same words. In my research, I saw similar efforts on Instagram, where influencers used #давайзамир (#letsgoforpeace) #язамир (#imforpeace), #своихнебросаем (#wedontleaveourownsbehind, in reference to Russian-speaking population in Ukraine and Russian soldiers), #zанаших (#forours), and a few other hashtags sharing the same Kremlin language. Although the hashtags seem innocent and pro-peace at first, most of the posts under them are very clearly pro-Putin propaganda. In total, there are hundreds of thousands of images and videos shared under the hashtags.
Beyond smaller influencers, the online videos and images are spreading fastest across the internet through those who have hundreds of thousands of followers. This includes Russian influencers Timati (17.9 million followers) claiming that Russians will be attacked abroad, Alisa Supronova (327K on YouTube, 54K on Instagram) shaming people for not supporting Russia, Alena Silvina (116K on Instagram) posting about how “Ukrainians have been mistreating and discriminating against Russians for decades” to many others repeating the debunked “Donbass genocide” myth. There are hundreds of thousands of posts sharing information that is deceptive, but empathetic, and could sway people’s view on the war.
Of course, Russia is not acknowledging that they are working with influencers. Despite this official silence, it’s clear that Kremlin’s tactics are reaching people in the country and beyond. It’s no secret that Russian influencers have huge followings and people are repeating and reposting much of their content. Even though most of the posts are in Russian, social media platforms let you translate a text written in Russian into your native tongue with one click.
Using social media influencers to grow your base and share information is still a relatively new space. Last year, the Biden administration made headlines for partnering with influencers to encourage young people to get vaccinated. Unlike the U.S. government Russian authorities are not disclosing any affiliations, and tech companies are not marking the information influencers are posting as potentially misleading (like they do with COVID) or removing it quickly enough.
Social media companies are still struggling with their policies around the largest conflict in Europe since WW2, but it’s incredibly important that they act fast to remove or flag content from influencers who are posting harmful information about the war. If they don’t act now, we are looking at thousands of conspiracy theories and denials about what’s happening between Russia and Ukraine.
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Russia Turns to TikTok, Instagram Influencers to Spread its Message
Photo via Unsplash.
April 24, 2022
Russia has long been notorious for its proficiency with propaganda. One impact of Western sanctions has been to shut down some of Russia's usual channels for spreading messaging but the Kremlin has found another way - social media influencers, writes Finsbury Glover Hering's Michelle Sindyukov.
O
ne unique aspect about the war in Ukraine is people using social media to share developments 24/7. From Tweets, to TikToks, to Instagram posts, information is being shared so fast that some have called it the “most internet-accessible war in history.” Unfortunately, this accessibility goes beyond journalists, Ukrainian civilians, and Ukrainian soldiers documenting tragedy. Russia is using social media to spread its own narrative despite sanctions intended to alienate.
From Soviet posters and magazines to modern troll farms and social media ads, Russia has for decades been notorious for its propaganda – whether aimed at its own population or an international audience. In Russia, the government has mastered how to influence the population by suppressing reporters, spreading Kremlin messaging across traditional and digital media, and in March passing a law that threatens prison time for anyone publishing what authorities consider to be false information about the war.
Influencing those who are outside the country is much harder. For most of the last 20 years, Russia has relied on Kremlin-backed media like RT (previously Russia Today) and Sputnik to help spread misinformation and influence the West. New rounds of sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and restrictions by some social media outlets targeting Russian news sources and channels - Meta, YouTube, Reddit, Twitter and TikTok have restricted Russian state-affiliated media outlets to some degree. With these new restrictions in place, the Kremlin is facing a new challenge – how do they continue to influence Westerners and Russian-speaking people abroad and at home?
The answer they found is social media influencers.
Russians – from regular citizens to government officials – are bypassing restrictions on access to social media by using VPNs. With this tactic, they’re able to access not only social media platforms denied them by sanctions, but also platforms like Instagram, which the Russian government itself banned. Since Russians still have access to social media and influencers are not getting sanctioned, their content is rarely flagged. They are flourishing and spreading Russian propaganda to people both at home and abroad, which could have tragic consequences.
Unfortunately, it is extremely hard for social media companies to regulate influencers. There are millions of influencers on each platform, and very few of them have are verified, making them difficult to monitor. Technically if any influencer is paid to make a post and they don’t follow FTC and EU regulations, their post could be taken down. However, when there’s no physical advertising product in videos or photos, it’s hard to prove that someone took money to spread a particular message. So, Kremlin-backed influencers are thriving.
Recently, Vice uncovered a coordinated campaign in which the Kremlin employed influencers on TikTok with millions of followers. The influencers all read the same script, reciting anti-Ukraine messaging. The speeches were so identical that people created compilation videos of them all speaking at the same time, saying the same words. In my research, I saw similar efforts on Instagram, where influencers used #давайзамир (#letsgoforpeace) #язамир (#imforpeace), #своихнебросаем (#wedontleaveourownsbehind, in reference to Russian-speaking population in Ukraine and Russian soldiers), #zанаших (#forours), and a few other hashtags sharing the same Kremlin language. Although the hashtags seem innocent and pro-peace at first, most of the posts under them are very clearly pro-Putin propaganda. In total, there are hundreds of thousands of images and videos shared under the hashtags.
Beyond smaller influencers, the online videos and images are spreading fastest across the internet through those who have hundreds of thousands of followers. This includes Russian influencers Timati (17.9 million followers) claiming that Russians will be attacked abroad, Alisa Supronova (327K on YouTube, 54K on Instagram) shaming people for not supporting Russia, Alena Silvina (116K on Instagram) posting about how “Ukrainians have been mistreating and discriminating against Russians for decades” to many others repeating the debunked “Donbass genocide” myth. There are hundreds of thousands of posts sharing information that is deceptive, but empathetic, and could sway people’s view on the war.
Of course, Russia is not acknowledging that they are working with influencers. Despite this official silence, it’s clear that Kremlin’s tactics are reaching people in the country and beyond. It’s no secret that Russian influencers have huge followings and people are repeating and reposting much of their content. Even though most of the posts are in Russian, social media platforms let you translate a text written in Russian into your native tongue with one click.
Using social media influencers to grow your base and share information is still a relatively new space. Last year, the Biden administration made headlines for partnering with influencers to encourage young people to get vaccinated. Unlike the U.S. government Russian authorities are not disclosing any affiliations, and tech companies are not marking the information influencers are posting as potentially misleading (like they do with COVID) or removing it quickly enough.
Social media companies are still struggling with their policies around the largest conflict in Europe since WW2, but it’s incredibly important that they act fast to remove or flag content from influencers who are posting harmful information about the war. If they don’t act now, we are looking at thousands of conspiracy theories and denials about what’s happening between Russia and Ukraine.
