Videos often use footage of old conflicts or computer games. Counterfeit live video is especially popular.
Fake videos of the Ukrainian war are spreading fast at the popular video service Tiktok. The service is already estimated to have more than a billion users worldwide, half of whom are under the age of 30.
It says as many as millions of young people have been exposed to completely fake videos depicting war-related events.
According to the BBC, fake live videos, among others, are circulating in Tiktok, claiming to be broadcast live in the middle of the war.
Often, these “live broadcasts” are videos of old wars or military exercises with sound effects such as explosions or shooting.
Tiktok already has more than 30 million followers on one of the channels broadcasting fake live streams, the BBC says.
“Many of the fake scary videos were probably made to make money through Tiktok’s gift scheme,” says the information researcher interviewed by the BBC. Abbie Richards.
In addition to Vanjo’s war videos, fake videos spread in Tiktok are increasingly using content from video games such as Call of Duty.
Unlike, for example, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, Tiktok does not generally flag fake or misleading content separately.
Nor does it provide analytics about the use and content of the service for researchers to use.