The service for creating and watching short videos TikTok has become one of the main platforms where fake videos about the war in Ukraine gather millions of views.

The monthly number of active TikTok users has reached one billion, most of them under 30 years old. They go to the service to find out the news about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, so the platform is trying hard to stop the flow of fakes.

According to a study by NewsGuard , a website that tracks misinformation on the Internet, new users can recommend false content about Ukraine within 40 minutes of joining the network. So you don’t even have to search for questionable content.

However, if Facebook, Instagram and Twitter mark fake videos about the war, TikTok doesn’t seem to have much time.

However, the company insists it has stepped up its efforts to combat misinformation.

Here are some of the most common categories of fake content that the BBC has found in TikTok.

From the first days of the war, fake streams collected a huge number of views in TikTok.

The recipe is simple: the user finds a dramatic video of an old conflict or some military exercise, adds a fake sound of a powerful explosion or intense firefight, launches a live broadcast and, as soon as a large audience gathers, asks for donations to his channel.

By mid-March, one such account had received nearly 30 million views. All but three live broadcasts were short clips taken from a YouTube video about old Ukrainian military exercises dating back to 2017.

The fake soundtrack of the shots has become so popular that it has appeared in more than 13,000 videos.

Users can respond to streams by sending gifts that can be converted into cash.

“It looks like a lot of viral spooky streams were created to make money with the TikTok gift system,” said Abby Richards, an independent researcher who is creating a video about the dangers of misinformation.

Most fake live broadcasts can be easily found on such popular hashtags as #Ukraine or #UkraineWar.

Instead of real video, users regularly used military video game footage or computer images (CGI).

TikTok is full of scenes from video games such as Arma 3 and Call of Duty. Fake aerial combat, in particular the shooting down of fighters, proved to be especially popular.

Some accounts use excerpts from war movies, TV series or reality quests for more realism.

One video, which received 24 million views, shows a man throwing explosives at a tank. This episode was taken from a video of an airsoft match and uploaded to YouTube in January.

Another fake stream, viewed by 2.3 million users, consists of computer graphics of rocket strikes and “walks” on the Internet since last year.

Richards says she has seen cases in which users wrote in comments to videos that were video games or fakes. But account holders can turn off comments – and warnings will disappear.

Videos of old conflicts are usually used when a new one breaks out. The BBC has seen videos of fighting in Libya, Syria and Chechnya as a conflict in Ukraine.

The video of the fierce battle between Russian and Ukrainian troops near the apartment building received 7.7 million views.

But in fact, these footage was recorded in 2014 in the Chechen capital, Grozny, during a deadly jihadist attack. To hide the real source, fake news tags and alleged live subtitles were put on the original footage.

Some users post videos of the 2014 fighting, which can be easily confused with the current ones, as well as footage of military exercises or parades in Russia or Ukraine.

The video of the column of Ukrainian tanks in the center of Kyiv was presented as if they were going to defend the capital from the Russian offensive. The video received nine million views. In fact, it was removed a few years ago during a military parade dedicated to Ukraine’s Independence Day.

Another video of a tank with a Ukrainian flag racing through a residential area has been viewed four million times. In fact, it was removed in 2014.

Richards says TikTok could solve the problem of viral old videos if it took simple steps, such as making the video’s release date clearer.

TikTok works with independent fact-checkers, albeit on a smaller scale than Meta and its Facebook and Instagram subsidiaries. But if Facebook and Instagram mark fake content about Ukraine, then in TikTok such marking is rare.

Unlike some of its competitors, TikTok does not provide the tools for analytics and transparency to scientists, researchers, and journalists that Richards says disinformation experts like her desperately demand.

Therefore, independent fact-checkers have to constantly manually analyze huge amounts of content.

Another problem, according to Richards, is the lack of a community of TikTok users who are willing to expose fakes on the platform.

“If TikTok can’t ensure the accuracy of information that is gaining millions of views, the burden falls on third-party researchers and regular TikTok users.”

The BBC asked TikTok for comment and received the following response:

“We continue to respond to the devastating war in Ukraine by increasing security resources to identify threats and remove misinformation.

To keep TikTok a safe and authentic place to receive information, we have added additional resources for moderating and verifying facts in Russian and Ukrainian, including working with language experts and independent fact-checking organizations. ”

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