There is a lot of war content circulating on social networking sites that gets caught by fact-checkers, and TikTok is the one that spreads the most false information.
Although the app, which is mostly used by young people, tries to curb the spread of fake news on the platform, the situation is not rosy, as new users encounter content spreading false information about Ukraine within 40 minutes of logging in. from a BBC monitoring misinformation NewsGuard-referring to.
Since the outbreak of the war, a lot of footage has been posted on social media claiming to have been taken during the war, but having nothing to do with reality. There have been instances of someone presenting a cut-out from a computer game as if it were real, but there have also been instances of footage from other war conflicts being sold as excerpts from the Ukrainian war.
Although the TikTok like Instagram and Facebook, it works with independent fact-checking groups and, unlike other social networking sites, it does not label false and misleading war-related content, or if it does, it does so only very rarely. As the app, known for its short videos, has a user base of over a billion and a very significant proportion of young people are learning about the war on this platform, it is of paramount importance to tackle fake content as soon as possible, as the spread of disinformation on TikTok appears to be very effective.
