tiktok emerges as a political battleground in navalny-stirred russia
TikTok and Political Activism in Russia
Over time, TikTok has established various policies designed to maintain distance from potentially contentious political issues. However, the platform’s user base frequently pursues its own objectives.
A Developing Conflict
Within Russia, a notable struggle is unfolding on the TikTok social network.
Young individuals are utilizing the application to produce videos demonstrating support for freedom of expression, mobilizing public opinion against the government and its handling of Alexei Navalny. Navalny is a politician and activist known for his opposition to Putin and his advocacy against corruption.
Conversely, the government has rapidly adapted to the medium of video messaging, reportedly engaging and financially compensating influencers to discourage widespread participation in protests.
Navalny’s Ongoing Struggle
Alexei Navalny’s protracted conflict with Putin’s administration has encompassed numerous political confrontations, periods of imprisonment, and a poisoning incident. Following medical treatment and recovery in Germany, he returned to Russia, leading to his subsequent arrest and conviction for violating prior parole conditions.
Throughout these events, Navalny has emerged as a symbol of resistance against authoritarianism. Given existing public dissatisfaction with the government’s management of economic challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic – a situation that has impacted, though not entirely overturned, government approval ratings – Navalny’s calls for large-scale demonstrations have resonated strongly.
TikTok as a Platform for Protest
As these demonstrations progress, TikTok is becoming a significant social media counterpart to this activism, mirroring the role Twitter played during the Arab Spring.
“Russian TikTok wasn’t typically focused on political content,” stated Egor Khodasevich, a food blogger with 1.2 million followers (@kushat_hochu). “Prior to Navalny’s return, the app primarily featured dancing, pranks, and aesthetics reminiscent of the post-Soviet era. Suddenly, political videos began appearing across diverse content categories – humor, beauty, and sports.”
Currently, Russian content on the app is experiencing a surge in videos depicting teenagers symbolically cutting up their passports and discarding them. Other videos show students removing portraits of Putin and replacing them with those of Navalny, alongside instructional guides for potential protestors. These guides advise on appropriate attire, essential supplies like water and portable chargers, and strategies for interacting with authorities if arrested, including feigning foreign nationality.
Hashtag Activism
These videos are coalescing around hashtags such as #23января (January 23, referencing a major protest date) and #занавального (“For Navalny”).
Navalny himself acknowledged the impact of these videos, albeit on Instagram rather than TikTok, commending the TikTok activists for their contribution to raising awareness and mobilizing participants.
He remarked on one post, “Respect to the schoolchildren who, according to my lawyer, caused a stir on TikTok.” He later satirized the characterization of the TikTok protest videos as “fakes” orchestrated by external forces.
TikTok’s Growing Presence in Russia
Russia possesses a relatively small, yet rapidly expanding and vocal, TikTok user base.
Data from SensorTower indicates that, globally, TikTok (including its Chinese version, Douyin) has been downloaded over 2.66 billion times. Approximately 93.6 million of these downloads occurred in Russia, excluding installations from third-party Android stores or direct downloads.
A December report in the Moscow Times estimates around 20 million active users in Russia, more than double the 8 million recorded at the end of 2019. While TikTok does not publicly disclose current monthly active users (MAUs) for Russia or globally, analysts predict the company will surpass 1 billion MAUs in the early part of this year.
Despite these numbers being under 100 million, videos utilizing the Navalny hashtag have exceeded 1 billion views on the platform (and have since surpassed 1.6 billion views as of publication).
A Resurgence of Influence: Russia and the Digital Landscape
However, Russia demonstrates unwavering determination in maintaining a leading position in technological advancements, and it has been strategically utilizing the media landscape to further its objectives.
State-controlled television and other government media channels actively discouraged public participation in protests, emphasizing concerns such as public safety, the potential spread of COVID-19, and the risk of arrest – a threat that was subsequently carried out through widespread and controversial detentions.
Simultaneously, focus shifted towards social media platforms, particularly TikTok.
Roskomnadzor initially announced that it would impose fines of up to 4 million rubles ($54,000) on major social media companies for failing to remove protest-related content, asserting that “these Internet platforms did not promptly delete a total of 170 unlawful appeals.”
This was followed by a directive to the management of TikTok, Facebook, Telegram, and Vkontakte to attend meetings with regulators to address the delayed removal of offending videos. They were warned that non-compliance could result in increased fines, reaching up to 10% of a company’s annual revenue, and even the potential blocking of services.
Reports emerged of TikTokers being contacted by law enforcement following the removal of their videos, leading to direct threats of fines from the regulatory body.
As with previous attempts to censor online platforms, authorities justified their actions as a response to societal impact, characterizing protest videos as a coordinated criminal effort to incite minors to engage in illegal activities that could jeopardize their well-being.
Beyond these official measures, the state also appeared to employ more subtle tactics.
Numerous newly created accounts, alongside established bloggers, began disseminating videos discouraging participation in the protests, warning of the potential dangers involved.
It was revealed that some individuals posting these videos were receiving financial compensation, ranging from 2,000 rubles (approximately $25) to 5,000 rubles, as disclosed by one TikToker who declined the offer and instead shared the proposal on the platform.
(While these amounts may appear modest, they can represent significant income for young people in a country where the average salary was around $718 per month as of 2019.)
The situation was quickly exposed, with several videos critical of the protests being removed within the past week. It remains unclear whether TikTok – which declined to provide a comment – or the original creators were responsible for their removal.
However, in one instance, a TikToker known as @golyakov_ (with 741,000 followers) initially shared a series of arguments against protesting. He later admitted to receiving payment but maintained that he genuinely believed in the message he was conveying (potentially explaining why the video remains accessible).
Startok, an agency representing social media influencers, confirmed that it had severed ties with two creators who had accepted payments for producing pro-government videos.
TikTok’s immediate appeal and widespread popularity among young adults have distinguished it within the social media landscape. Nevertheless, it was not the sole platform experiencing anti-Navalny activity, both in terms of messaging and the solicitation of paid posts.
An aide to Navalny shared a Twitter thread featuring Instagram Stories questioning the sincerity of Navalny’s decision to return to Russia, suggesting it was a calculated move to ensure his arrest.
Boris Kantorovich, a sales director at social media agency Avtorskiye Media, who has used Twitter to report on detentions, noted that he also encountered briefs on the Telegram chat ADvizer.me, as well as within a Facebook group requiring bloggers to create videos adhering to specific talking points. These included “protesters provoked the police at the rally,” “we are tired of Navalny,” and “we want peace and quiet.”
When Kantorovich posed as one of the TikTokers he represents, he received a brief for a 15-second video. “Following a brief negotiation, I increased the price from 2,000 rubles to 3,500 rubles,” he stated.
Additional creative briefs specified the need to condemn protests scheduled for January 31st and February 2nd, the latter being the date of Navalny’s trial.
“Bloggers were instructed to assert that ‘Navalny will undoubtedly be imprisoned,’ that he is ‘funded by the West,’ and that ‘his recent imprisonment is lawful’,” Kantorovich explained.
Kantorovich emphasized that authorities did not directly engage his agency, Avtorskiye Media, for advertising collaborations with its affiliated bloggers. “We clearly label all advertisements, but authorities disapprove, as they aim to create the illusion of genuine public opinion,” he added.
Anatoly Kapustin shared similar information with the “Picture” advertising agency.
Kapustin, during an interview on the non-state-owned Russian TV station Rain, identified the “public organization for youth affairs” as the advertiser.
“The proposed talking points included: ‘criminal charges could be filed against protesters,’ ‘you could face imprisonment and subsequent difficulty finding employment,’ and ‘Navalny’s children are studying in America’,” he revealed during the interview.
In certain instances, the viral techniques characteristic of TikTok have been repurposed by protestors to subvert pro-government campaigns.
Following a surge of videos based on a recurring audio clip featuring a deep voice proclaiming that TikTok is not a platform for politics, but rather for [insert a lighthearted and non-political activity/video here], protestors hijacked the audio and hashtag to advocate for free speech and resist censorship.
TikTok declined to comment for this report, but generally maintains a policy of non-interference in partisan politics and refrains from allowing political advertising on its platform, instead positioning it as a commercial space for conveying political messages.
The company declined to comment on whether it was removing videos reported as potential paid advertising by viewers, nor would it address whether it had responded to any government requests for video removal. It periodically publishes transparency reports detailing some of this information and its subsequent actions, but only after the fact. (Each request is evaluated individually.)
The Navalny situation has highlighted a strong desire among younger individuals to become more politically involved, and TikTok is currently emerging as their preferred platform for doing so.
Khodasevich, the food blogger, believes TikTok has the potential to supplant Twitter as the primary platform for the opposition in Russia.
“Due to its sophisticated algorithms, TikTok can reach a wider audience with your video than YouTube or Instagram, even without paid promotion,” he stated in an interview. “TikTok representatives informed me that political videos lacking direct calls for protests will not be banned.”
This suggests that, with ingenuity – and a significant degree of opportunism and cynicism – both sides may continue to advance their political agendas. Boris Kantorovitch concurs.
“Authorities will adjust their strategy and become more discreet,” he said. “They acted hastily. They likely viewed TikTok as a fertile ground for cultivating loyalists. Now, the only way to prevent people from discussing politics on TikTok is to block access to the platform.”
Or, perhaps, if you can’t defeat them, join them? In recent days, government organizations, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Emergency Situations, have joined the platform to offer the public a glimpse into their operations:
Some of the content is not particularly subtle – the Foreign Affairs Ministry immediately used its new account to post a TikTok discrediting Navalny – but more broadly, these actions indicate that the government is acutely aware of the platform’s impact in mobilizing opposition and is attempting various countermeasures.
Therefore, did TikTok genuinely mobilize a substantial number of young people to attend rallies? Are we witnessing the emergence of a new protest movement, or simply another instance of “clicktivism”?
According to a poll conducted on January 23rd by TV Rain in Moscow, 44% of protesters were participating in a demonstration for the first time. Only 10% of respondents were under the age of 18, with the average age of protesters around 31, indicating an overlap with TikTok’s user base in the country.
Other significant movements (such as last year’s BLM activism) reveal that the 18-34 age group constitutes the largest demographic among protestors (although participation from other age groups was also notable).
Considering this, it appears that both authorities and the opposition in Russia will likely continue to leverage the social media platforms most popular among this age group to recruit new supporters.
Social media may assume an even greater role in the coming months, as the wave of physical, outdoor protests has subsided due to the Russian winter weather and the police response, providing individuals with an opportunity to regroup.
In the meantime, Navalny supporters are planning to stand outside their homes on Sunday evening, February 14th, from 8:00 to 8:15 pm, holding up their telephone flashlights, taking photos, and uploading them to social media using a new hashtag: #ЛюбовьСильнееСтраха (Love is Stronger than Fear).
Of course, as with all content on social media, it can be challenging to ascertain everyone’s true intentions. As Khodasevich noted, some political posts are genuine, while others could be attributed to “news jacking.” However, they are undoubtedly generating significant attention that the government is now actively working to counteract.
With another crucial Navalny hearing scheduled for February 15th, and the September 2021 state Duma elections only months away, the stakes are high for the political battles that lie ahead.