The TikTok War Looks a Lot Like Another Conflict

It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly 22 years since the Persian Gulf War began.

We all remember the images and explosions the CNN reporters broadcast live from their ninth-floor room in the Al Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad during the first days and nights of Operation Desert Storm.

Terms like scud missiles and tracer fire were coined during those days.

Though the Vietnam War was the first war on television, scenes from the fighting there were limited to a half-hour each day during the national news on the three networks.

In contrast, the Gulf War was covered around the clock on all the cable news networks.

I distinctly recall a man-on-the-street interview during the first days of the conflict. A reporter asked a college student what he was going to do that evening, and he said, “I’m going to go home, pop some popcorn and watch the war.”

And now we have the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

This conflict is becoming known as the TikTok War.

And that isn’t a good thing.

Between social media’s mostly unbridled ability to say anything combined with the premise that the truth doesn’t matter anymore, TikTok and other platforms are being used to spread misinformation about the war.

And remember, we’re dealing with Russia here; and we all know they were promoting “alternative facts” long before the term existed.

A story by the Associated Press said this:

“In 2014, Russia flooded the internet with fake accounts pushing disinformation about its takeover of Crimea. Eight years later, experts say Russia is mounting a far more sophisticated effort as it invades Ukraine.

“State-controlled media outlets look to divide Western audiences. The effort amounts to an emerging part of Russia’s war arsenal with the shaping of opinion through orchestrated disinformation fighting alongside actual troops and weapons.”

TikTok doesn’t deserve all the blame, however. Accounts on other social media outlets controlled by the Russian government have been active as well.

The article continued, “… analysts tracked thousands of Facebook and Twitter accounts that had recently posted about Ukraine. They saw a sudden and dramatic increase in anti-Ukrainian content in the days immediately before the invasion. 

“On Valentine’s Day, for instance, the number of anti-Ukrainian posts created by the sample of Twitter accounts jumped by 11,000% when compared with just days earlier. Analysts believe a significant portion of the accounts are inauthentic and controlled by groups linked to the Russian government.”

But like I said, propaganda isn’t anything new when it comes to Russia. They just don’t have to throw leaflets out of planes anymore.

The question is, how will the rest or the world — and let’s face it — most importantly the US, responds to it all.

I did a little more research, and according to a Pew Research Center survey, one out of three Americans said the Russian buildup at the Ukraine border only had a minor effect on US interests.

I wonder how many people thought it was no big deal to us when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939?

That “special operation” — as the Kremlin wants us to refer to this invasion — ended up costing 417,000 American lives before World War II was over.

And this situation looks awfully similar to me.

But I don’t TikTok, so how would I know?