TikTok war: How Russia’s invasion of Ukraine played to social media’s youngest audience

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the latest example of the central role TikTok has played in bringing news and current events to the app’s large Gen Z audience.

When Russia invaded Ukraine last week, some of social media's youngest users experienced the conflict from the front lines on TikTok.

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Videos of people huddling and crying in windowless bomb shelters, explosions blasting through urban settings and missiles streaking across Ukrainian cities took over the app from its usual offerings of fashion, fitness and dance videos.

Ukrainian social media influencers uploaded bleak scenes of themselves wrapped in blankets in underground bunkers and army tanks rolling down residential streets, juxtaposed against photos of blooming flowers and laughing friends at restaurants that honoured more peaceful memories of their hometowns.

They urged their followers to pray for Ukraine, donate to support the Ukrainian military and demanded Russian users in particular to join anti-war efforts.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which it has called a "special operation," is the latest example of the central role TikTok has played in bringing news and current events to the app's large Gen Z audience. Its famed algorithm is known for serving trending content even if users do not follow certain people, allowing topics to quickly go viral among its 1 billion monthly users.

The app has become so influential in this conflict that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appealed to "TikTokers" as a group that could help end the war, in a speech directed at Russian citizens. Some TikTokers picked up where the politician left off.