TikTok in war with Russian media as ‘misleading’ Kremlin propaganda floods onto app despite ban

TIKTOK is reportedly still battling to prevent misinformation from Russian news outlets on its app despite a ban last month.

New content originating from Russia was banned back in March after the invasion of Ukraine but some Russian state media accounts are still posting.

Reports suggest there’s still misinformation about the Ukraine war on the appGetty

Russia has criminalized what it has called “fake news” about its invasion of Ukraine so TikTok blocked any new content from users in Russia.

TikTok said at the time: “Our highest priority is the safety of our employees and our users, and in light of Russia’s new ‘fake news’ law, we have no choice but to suspend livestreaming and new content to our video service in Russia while we review the safety implications of this law.”

Despite the ban, Russia Today was found to still be posting concerning TikTok content until March 28.

TikTok is said to have removed hundreds of accounts posting misleading content about the Ukraine war.

RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonya still has an active TikTok account and is still posting content.

According to TechCrunch, Russian state-owned outlet Sputnik Video’s and its Spanish language account have been spotted posting content long after the ban was put in place.

TikTok is said to be labelling content from numerous Russian state-owned accounts.

However, the labels aren’t said to be visible on account pages viewed on the smartphone app, meaning users could still be misled.

Other social media platforms have taken a stance against Russian media.

YouTube has been blocking Russian state media videos for months from across the globe.

Twitter is labelling and down-ranking tweets from state-owned outlets deemed to be posting propaganda.

Facebook and Instagram also down-rank content and label it if it’s deemed misleading.

We have reached out to TikTok for comment,.