Here is a video from the day that Putin first invaded Ukraine
or further invaded. Let's let's listen to the audio that they've put
I'm in the MFing air
Oh sorry. And now if you look at the hashtags it says: Russia, Ukraine, USA but also hashtag funny.
Now that hashtag funny that is the only indication that this is a joke.
[Reporter] For millions of people this is their window into the war in Ukraine:
So I just got off of a Zoom call with the White House.
[Reporter] It's why the White House held a special briefing for popular influencers
The three most important bits of the White House briefing.
[Reporter] And why misinformation experts like Harvard’s Emily Dreyfuss are paying very close attention
because sorting fact from fiction in this fast-scrolling, algorithm-fueled creativity hub is harder than you might think.
We're talking about Ukraine on TikTok.
Why is that important at this moment in history, Emily?
You know it is so important.
A lot of people have the sense that if they come to social media they'll see the real raw story
not the story mediated through the media in some way.
That makes misinformation and information that is provided without context even more dangerous
because it you these people may be tending to trust it more.
You can see right there in very small grey letters it says 32.6 billion views on that top hashtag
[Reporter] Wow.
So this video that we're looking at it says the capital of Ukraine at the moment.
Anything go through your mind when you first see this, like any doubts?
I mean let me walk you through what i see when i'm looking at this video
So see in the bottom left this is where the most important contextual information is on any TikTok video.
In very little font is it says 2/24, so that's the date that this video was posted
However, the the words on the screen say the capital of Ukraine at the moment
which may have been true on 2/24 but if you and I look at this video on 3/23
and it's the top returned video and it says at the moment we would be very
we would, you would understand why we would misunderstand and think that this is live.
Now see, click on the one of President Zelensky's face right there, this is an interesting one.
So this video was posted the day after Putin and first escalated the war and invaded Ukraine.
This is him. This is a video of him, but it is from him in a film as a as an actor
because Zelensky was an actor before he was president.
Now again, there is no way to know that
You know, often people go to the comments to try to find more contextual information
but instead of getting the more contextual information what they get is people's reactions
empathy; the pain I feel, I felt when he cried; the world is not for war anymore
I mean these are emotional feelings, but they're not helping me at all to understand the verification of this video.
Is it possible to find out where this came from in the first place or is that impossible?
So yes it is, but not from just a viewer looking at this app.
If someone were to come across a video and say hey this is interesting but I'd like to add
some spice to this video and make it my own. That can be done fairly easily right?
Yeah. So let's take this one. This is a video that went viral in the early days of the invasion.
It actually does not show Ukraine at all.
This is a video that was from a different dispute in a different country at a different time
How would you know that?
To most people it just yeah sure if that looks like Ukraine, sure it is it must be.
Yeah. And now if I want to add a sound to this video
Many of the videos we found in our research were using this exact sound -- "sniper."
Now listen to listen to this I'm going to turn my volume up so you can hear it
Sounds real. Yup.
Yeah. And with that video, sounds like they're under attack
As with all social media
TikTok was not created to be a place for you to get accurate, verified information.
The purpose of TikTok is to entertain.
And to allow people to become, you know, be creative it is a it's a place about self-expression
and I'm on TikTok I love I love looking at TikTok, but you you have to view it with skepticism.
Well, Emily, thanks so much for the work you're doing and for all your insight today.
Thank you so much.
And I just want to say one more thing I know that we're going to cut off that you won't be able to use all this but
like literacy about this app for people using it is one of the most crucial ways to be a
responsible news consumer, but it's not enough for us to expect every person who's using TikTok
to do this much work to verify what they're seeing and to understand what they're seeing
that's unrealistic and so we do have to realize at some point it's TikTok or governments
or someone who will have to make rules to make it easier for people to trust what they're looking at