TikTok blocked more than 1,600 accounts that spread Russian propaganda

The social network TikTok identified and blocked 1,682 accounts that were spreading Russian propaganda about the war in Ukraine to a European audience.

This is stated in the companyʼs message.

The network worked from Russia, its main audience was residents of Germany, Italy, and Great Britain. The people behind these accounts created localized, inauthentic accounts and shared content in German, Italian, and English, which they produced through language synthesis, reinforcing a pro-Russian perspective aimed at the discourse on the war in Ukraine. In total, the blocked accounts had more than 130,000 followers.

TikTok also blocked a Georgian network that spread propaganda to Russian-speaking users. According to the companyʼs estimates, the network operated from Georgia and focused on the Russian-speaking audience, mainly in Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine. The people behind these accounts shared content in Russian using fake accounts posing as news agencies promoting a pro-Russian perspective on the war in Ukraine.

• At the end of September, the company Meta, which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram, discovered more than 60 accounts that pretended to be accounts of well-known publications and spread Russian propaganda.