New large-scale Russian disinformation campaign on TikTok aims at discrediting Ukraine’s mobilization efforts and territorial defense centers, investigation finds

At the end of July 2024, the destructive #it’snotmyukraine was among the three most popular hashtags on the TikTok Creative Centre website, the Ukrainian media outlet Texty has found.

The numbers were impressive: 41,000 posts in a week and 10 million views — incredible results for a hashtag that didn’t exist a month ago.

“We know for sure that hundreds of identical profiles on TikTok have been created with one goal in mind - to distribute videos about the misconduct of Recruiting office or actors playing Recruiting office representatives to the widest possible audience,” the organization says. “We are not even considering the veracity of the videos themselves, as we are talking about 2,100 accounts that are trying to bypass the platform’s algorithms and go viral among Ukrainians.”

Fake accounts carefully try to redirect users to the “Renaissance of Ukraine” telegram channel. Created on 7 July, the channel posts “up-to-date information about Recruiting office, their actions and lawlessness. Useful tips and tricks”, as well as calls for information to be sent to the bot and promises to create an up-to-date map with Recruiting office employees in different cities of Ukraine.

Sometimes, it also compares the 2014 Olympic Games in Paris and Russia. With the classic propaganda question, “Why is the West promoting this gayness and debauchery?”