During Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the government of the Red Bear Country was said to have used the services of influencers on TikTok to spread propaganda. On the other hand, the United States Government also did the same thing.
This was revealed from an investigation conducted by Vice, which found that the Russian government paid influencers to spread certain narrative videos related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
They found a group on Telegram that spread instructions containing a narrative that must be disseminated in the form of video, including targets to be achieved. Some of the influencers in the group are said to have more than a million followers.
Maybe this is why TikTok blocks videos from Russia. But it's not a big problem, because the admin in the Telegram group also provides a trick to get around the block.
The Telegram group was closed on March 9, shortly after Vice conducted an investigation. Most of the videos have now been deleted, but reportedly the deletion was carried out on the instructions of the operator from the group.
The effectiveness of the propaganda campaign is unknown, and TikTok has not commented on it. They only said they would continue to combat the threat of misinformation related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The United States Government has taken similar steps. The Washington Post report said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki and US National Security Council adviser Matt Miller met with 30 TikTok influencers to discuss the US approach to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Including the theoretical steps the US will take if Russia uses its nuclear weapons, we quoted from Engadget, Sunday (13/3/2022).
The meeting between White House representatives and influencers aims to provide correct information from trusted sources. The goal is to combat the spread of hoaxes among millions of TikTok users.