A Russian user looks inside TikTok’s propaganda-filled digital bubble
In early March, as Russia’s war in Ukraine intensified, the country’s state regulator blocked access to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Soon the last remaining global social media platform in the country, TikTok, decided to take action. On March 6, the company announced plans to “suspend livestreaming and new content to our video service in Russia,” citing the Kremlin’s law criminalizing “fake news” about the war in Ukraine.
The decision did not shut the platform down completely, but it effectively stopped the clock on March 6, and cut Russian users off from seeing any content that had been posted by accounts based outside of the country. Within a few days, Russian creators soon found themselves in a bubble dominated by pro-war content, with war propaganda videos becoming more and more popular. This is significant in Russia, where the platform is hugely popular — it had 29 million users as of 2021.
“Russians didn't expect it to be such a big deal. We still had a Russian TikTok and it wasn't such a huge loss that now we couldn’t see dances or cooking videos,” said Natalia, a 25-year-old videomaker from St. Petersburg whose TikTok channel, ironcurtainlyf, documents life in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine. We are withholding Natalia’s last name for safety reasons.
Natalia has two phones: a Russian one and a British one. Although she is physically in Russia, she is able to make videos in English and post them using her British account and phone. She still uses her Russian account to check her timeline.