TikTok Was Designed for War

Mar 1, 2022 7:00 AMAs Russia’s invasion of Ukraine plays out online, the platform’s design and algorithm prove ideal for the messiness of war—but a nightmare for the truth.

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The first social media war to play out on TikTok was Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Arab Spring was furthered on social media. Social media timelines were filled with clips of Syrian children. The Taliban's capture of Kabul was live-tweeted into our homes last year. Images of horrors are nothing new. The current conflict is a different kind of social media war, fueled by TikTok's effect on the old norms of tech. TikTok has created a stream of war footage the likes of which we have never seen, from grandmothers saying goodbye to friends to instructions on how to drive captured Russian tanks.