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A pro-Russia propaganda campaign is using over 180 TikTok influencers to promote the invasion of Ukraine

Over 180 Russian influencers on TikTok are involved in a seemingly concerted propaganda campaign using the caption “Russian Lives Matter” and participating in a combination of three trends that promote online support for Russia's war in Ukraine.

A Media Matters review of videos posted between March 4 and March 8 that use the caption “Russian Lives Matter #RLM” identified 197 videos from 186 accounts, 12 of which are verified on TikTok. Our review found that a number of the videos had identical captions and in-video text, suggesting that they were the result of some degree of organization. The video content took a favorable, pro-Russian stance regarding the war effort. If these posts were coordinated, it would suggest that they are trying to influence conversations about the war among English and Russian-speaking audiences on TikTok. Similar influencer coordination was uncovered in a recent Vice report.

Of the 197 videos reviewed by Media Matters, 180 — or 91% — were uploaded between March 5 and 6. Notably, many of the larger influencers involved in this campaign do not appear to be particularly political in their daily content. For instance, one user is a beauty influencer with 3 million followers, another account with 1.8 million followers makes comedy sketches, while another creates prank videos for its 3.2 million followers.

It is already improbable that 186 Russian influencers would organically participate in one of these trends, with nearly identical videos, using identical on-screen text, English-language posters, identical captions, and an identical hashtag all within a matter of two days — but the users’ typos, in particular, suggest some level of organization behind these trends.