TikTok found and blocked 1,682 accounts spreading Russian propaganda about the war in Ukraine to European audiences. This is stated in the message of the company.
The company's specialists found out that the network operated from Russia, and its main audience were residents of Germany, Italy and the UK. The people behind these accounts created localized non-authentic accounts and shared content in German, Italian and English using speech synthesis in those languages, reinforcing the pro-Russian point of view aimed at the discourse on the war in Ukraine. In total, the blocked accounts had more than 130 thousand subscribers.
TikTok also blocked a Georgian network that was spreading propaganda against Russian-speaking users. According to the company's 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 outlets spreading a pro-Russian point of view aimed at discussing the war in Ukraine.
“We know that covert influencer operations will continue to evolve in response to our discovery, and networks may attempt to re-establish their presence on our platform. For example, in addition to the networks disclosed in this report, 365 additional accounts were identified as belonging to previously deleted networks and subsequently deleted,” the company said in a statement.