Elizabeth Culliford and Daphne Psaledakis

(Reuters) – Teens, tweens, and adults in Gen Z have turned to TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms to discuss tensions between Russia, Ukraine. Some are appealing to a “Vladdy Daddy”, a leader who they believe will refrain from starting a conflict.

TikTok videos are also a great source of information for those interested in tracking Russia’s increase in troops close to its borders with Ukraine. Moscow, however denies any Western claims that Russia intends to invade Ukraine.

Recent weeks saw thousands of comments left by social media users on Instagram posts made from accounts belonging to unofficial Russian President Vladimir Putin. Meta Platforms spokeswoman said that they don’t know if Putin is an official participant on Instagram (NASDAQ:).

According to the meme database Know Your Meme, “Vladdy Daddy”, which has sexual connotations as well, was popularized on the Internet in 2016.

Researchers refer to Generation Z as people who were born between the late 1990s and the early 2000s. Hanka is a 12 year old girl from Slovakia. She discovered the meme via TikTok, posted “Vladdy daddy please not war ” in comments to one of the accounts.

Other commentators left such comments as “Mercurys retrograde Vladdy, this isnt it

Hanka stated that “Me and some of my friends were playing truth to dare” and she was challenged to enter the text. Hanka spoke in a telephone interview.

However, the meme was criticized on Twitter (NYSE 🙂 by Lena (16), who is from Poland.

Lena said that she doesn’t believe people who live far from it should see it as a joke or a meme. “It’s serious,” Lena stated in a telephone interview.

TikTok didn’t respond to our request to comment about whether or not there were any indications of coordinated behavior in misleading people.

Most messages and videos don’t indicate where they were posted.

According to MediaScope, TikTok has the highest monthly reach in Russia and is one of Russia’s most loved social media platforms.

FROM DANCE to POLITICS

TikTok is experiencing explosive growth over the past few years. The app, which is owned by Chinese tech firm ByteDance, was initially known for its viral dance challenges for teenagers. However it has become an increasingly popular destination for political content.

Nina Jankowicz (a researcher at the UK’s Centre for Information Resilience) said that TikTok “is just fascinating the way that TikTok kinda connects younger audiences with politics and world events.” She also confirmed open-source content on the crisis by working with them. “No other platform does that in the same way.”

However, she is skeptical that the internet engagement will generate offline protests.

There have been several videos explaining the Russia-Ukraine conflict, both from Russia and from the West.

Myca Hinton is a 21 year old student at Fordham University, New York. She posts commentary and news videos to TikTok about the crisis. Her videos have received thousands of hits. They will be helpful to high school students and college students, who may not have access to TV or newspapers.

Hinton explained that her language is tailored to younger readers by using puns and easily-understood words.

Hinton posted under @mycahinton.

Russian-language videos explaining how the crisis occurred have also been uploaded, as well videos purportingly to show military equipment in motion.

Maxim (with 29,000 followers) has almost one million views on his explainer video in which he doubts that Russia will invade Ukraine. Maxim uses @novosileckij.

SOURCE OF SERIOUS STUDY

TikTok videos, which are posted by people in the area, can be used for open-source research.

Michael Sheldon (a research associate with the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab) says that through TikTok, he has been monitoring military equipment coming from Russia. Sheldon explained that this was one of the first military buildsups in which the app was used as a primary source for his research.

Sheldon explained that TikTok “is one of the major games in terms of visual data collection on buildup,” and added that TikTok accounted for around 80% of his open-source analysis.

The U.S. State Department did not comment on whether TikTok videos of bystanders were used in monitoring the buildup.

Jankowicz stated that Russian youth are at risk of their lives by posting to social media. He cited arrests for Instagram and Facebook posts. Russia has exerted pressure on the major social media platforms through fines as well as slowdowns in order to take down banned content.

TikTok’s latest transparency report said Russia was the single largest source of government removal requests in the period January-June 2021.