According to a report released Thursday by fact-checking service Newsguard, China’s short-video platform Tiktok has hundreds of videos honoring the Wagner paramilitary organization. These videos, which often contain music and also show acts of violence, have been viewed more than a billion times, according to Newsguard.
According to the report from the platform, which specializes in online disinformation, 160 video clips show brutal acts of violence or glorifying allusions to acts of violence allegedly committed by the Wagner group. Among them are 14 videos showing the brutal execution with a sledgehammer of a suspected Russian mercenary who switched sides and supported Ukraine.
Refer to recruitment websites
Newsguard identified another 500 Tiktok videos that do not show acts of violence, but advocate violence against Ukrainians. They would also show calls to kill Ukrainians for being “Nazis”. In addition, Newsguard found five Tiktok accounts that redirect users to other websites where the Wagner team regularly posts recruitment calls.
According to Newsguard, the 500 videos used as propaganda and recruiting tools for the private military violate Tiktok guidelines. According to Newsguard, the video platform removed 10 videos in the course of the investigation. However, a video of the execution was viewed at least 900,000 times before it was taken down by Tiktok.
That’s what the platform does
At the time of the report, there were at least four more videos on the platform, according to Newsguard. In other videos, of course, the execution is downplayed, for example in shots of the mercenary before his death, accompanied by cheerful music, next to images of a sledgehammer.
When asked by Newsguard on Wednesday, Tiktok referenced the community guidelines, which clearly state that “we will not tolerate people using our platform to threaten or incite violence, or to spread attacks or abuses based on nationality or other characteristics of people who are worthy. of protection”. The platform will “take action against content that violates these guidelines,” it said.
Partially owned by the Chinese government
According to the independent fact-checking service, Tiktok’s algorithm drives users off the platform to the violent videos about the Wagner Group. When a Newsguard analyst searched for the term “Wagner,” TikTok’s search bar suggested search terms like “Wagner execution” and “Wagner sledgehammer.”
Popular among young users, the Tiktok video app is operated by ByteDance, a Chinese internet conglomerate that is part-owned by the Chinese government. The app has over a billion users worldwide. (SDA)