Mahedi Hasan | 23 Nov 2022

Tiktok War! When I first heard the name, looks funny. Tiktok War, really? How come people named the war “Tiktok War?”. It’s sad but true. The Current Russia Ukraine war is sometimes called the first Tiktok war. The name was not given by some random social media guys or even some random people. Surprisingly, the name was given by renowned news media and political analysts.  

Russia Ukraine war is also called the First Social Media war, as there has been huge influence and motives through social media. However, Arab Spring is considered the rehearsal of social media movements. Before talking about this topic, let’s dig into some history:

The Spanish-American War has been called the first "media war" for a long time because media coverage prompted military action. Some sensationalist articles were in the papers, and reporters were sent to Cuba to see the war for themselves.

About 60 years later, the war in Vietnam was called the "first television war" because it got a large scale of news coverage after the United States sent a lot of combat troops to the war in the spring of 1965.

The 1991 Invasion of Iraq – also known as the Gulf War – made CNN a worldwide brand, highlighting the power of cable news in such times.

There has been some debate about the first internet war, the Yugoslavian Civil Wars of the 1990s, or the War of Terror following 9/11. However, both wars showed the potential to cover wars in real-time.

However, the war between Russia and Ukraine is called the First Social Media War, particularly the first TikTok war. War footage is circulated through social media posts, videos, and articles. Sometimes they are authentic, and sometimes they are fake or misleading. Even if there are live updates, live videos from direct war or war actions are being circulated within moments through social media.

Not only the influencers or ordinary people but also the government officials from home and abroad and also interest groups are giving updates about the war, whether they are authentic or fake. The war between Russia and Ukraine looks like some event where public relations are busy circulating news and media as much as possible. Significantly, gen Z is mainly addicted to TikTok. And some influencers and interest groups take this as an opportunity to spread the news and information related to this war according to their interest. Thousands of videos related to war, war crime, humanities, politics, brutality, praise, or even actions are being circulated in TikTok by the interest groups from both sides, that’s why this war also can be called as the first TikTok War.

Sources:

Photo Source: The Telegraph

Naughton, J. (2022, March 4). Ukraine’s victories in the ‘TikTok war’ won’t stop Vlad the Invader’s missiles | John Naughton | The Guardian. The Gurdian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/05/ukraines-victories-in-the-tiktok-war-wont-stop-vlad-the-invaders-missiles

Stokel-Walker, C. (2022, February 27). The first TikTok war: how are influencers in Russia and Ukraine responding? | Social media | The Guardian. The Gurdian. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/feb/26/social-media-influencers-russia-ukraine-tiktok-instagram

Suciu, P. (2022, March 1). Is Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine The First Social Media War? Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/petersuciu/2022/03/01/is-russias-invasion-of-ukraine-the-first-social-media-war/?sh=5da7f2d41c5c