To counter Moscow's "dominance" on Tiktok, one of Ukraine's top information warfare officials told Bloomberg on May 7 that Kiev needs TikTok's assistance.

The head of the Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD) at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Andriy Kovalenko, was interviewed by Bloomberg and revealed that Russia's advancement is not only on the battlefield but also in cyberspace. 

According to Kovalenko, "Russia is dominating us on TikTok" due to its effort, he said, emphasizing, "We need to adjust our approach and consider focusing on this social network as well."

The Russians are "working systematically," he added, claiming that they are creating fake accounts with Ukrainian SIM cards, and "gaming" TikTok algorithms to reach a bigger audience in Ukraine. 

On the other hand, Kovalenko said, not many Ukrainian creators are present on TikTok as his own account has 543,000 followers and features videos that "underscore Ukraine’s views on the war," Bloomberg revealed.

Propaganda operations

Previously, Kovalenko opposed demands by Ukrainian officials to ban Telegram, stressing that this act would be impossible, impractical, and would actually harm propaganda operations by Kiev. 

Speaking with Bloomberg, he said that he also does not support a ban on TikTok. Instead, he believes that the company should launch an office in Kiev to "help fight disinformation more effectively."

Ukraine previously complained to its representative in the EU and managed to get TikTok owner ByteDance to ban 24 "pro-Russian" channels, Kovalenko said.

He claimed that Russian "disinformation" on the platform amounts to questioning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's legitimacy, adding that Russian "bots" are directing their energy towards May 20, his term's exploration date. 

Bloomberg cited estimates showing that only 25% of social media users in Ukraine use TikTok, while over 70% have Telegram and only 8% are on X. 

During the last months of 2023, according to TikTok's quarterly report, it took down 2 million videos in Ukraine, suspected of being part of "covert influence operations" by artificially spreading pro-Russian or pro-Ukrainian narratives. 

Read more: TikTok, parent company ByteDance sue US government over ban

US wants TikTok to be owned by an American company 

On April 23, the US Senate voted to pass a bill that would either ban TikTok or force a sale of the app, giving its China-based parent company ByteDance up to one year to divest its crown jewel before being banned from US app stores.

The bill passed in the House on April 20, with 79 senators voting in favor and 18 against, by a margin of 360 to 58, as part of a foreign aid package for Ukraine, Taiwan, and "Israel". The bill was then signed by US President Joe Biden on April 24. 

According to the new law, ByteDance has one year to sell TikTok to a US-based company, or the app would be banned in the United States. However, TikTok's head of public policy for the Americans, Michael Beckerman, clarified that the company would fight the legislation in court. That said, if the federal law goes into effect without being blocked, Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store would be required to stop offering the app for download. 

"At the stage that the bill is signed, we will move to the courts for a legal challenge," Beckerman wrote in the memo, first reported by tech news website The Information. Beckerman claimed that the bill violated the First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech.