ABSTRACT
TikTok, one of the fastest-growing social media platforms, has enjoyed even wider popularity after the war in Ukraine started. News organisations such as the BBC rushed to the platform to share content about what was hastily called “the first TikTok war.” However, an analysis of the thirty most popular videos shared under the list #Ukraine demonstrates that the videos of influencers get more interaction and reach a wider population than the ones by journalists. The content analysis of these videos reveals that first-person narration and self-performance videos have a higher chance to be viral than news and explainer videos. Among the top-rated contents, a considerable number belong to anonymous sources, while significant number of others are shared by “war time influencers” who have become TikTok celebrities as a result of the platform's algorithmic recommendation system, the “For You” page, which lists contents according to users' interests not according to the follower numbers of other accounts. Overall, the representation of the war on this platform dramatically differentiates from the narration on traditional media platforms, and it amalgamates tragedy with humour, campaigning with propaganda, and facts with fiction. Furthermore, the content produced by anonymous sources and everyday users processing unverified audio-visual material makes misinformation and sometimes disinformation go viral.
