Anxiety over fighting and a fire at Europe's largest nuclear power station at Zaporizhzhia has given a real-world spin to the viral feeding frenzy over the nuclear threat posed by the Ukraine-Russia war.
A TikTok post purporting to show Russia moving nuclear weapons to the front line garnered more than 18 million views during the first few days of fighting. It was completely false but its purpose — whether to get audience or spread terror — was no doubt served.
The platform is not only being used as a tool of aggression and to spread misinformation. It has become a tool of resistance for Ukrainian authorities, as well as a de facto news outlet and tool of expression for those on the ground.
Worldwide there are suggestions the Russia-Ukraine war is the inaugural “TikTok war” for those not primarily involved in the conflict. The platform shows that a simple trip to the supermarket can easily become a survival exercise; a cosy bed can transform into a potential tomb.
A flood of TikTok posts also offer an ill-informed survival guide to a nuclear apocalypse.
As bizarre as this last transformation sounds, since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, the social media platform has transitioned from a repository for dodgy dance videos to a repository for even dodgier videos on nuclear warfare.
Posts explaining nuclear war, offering survival guides and even simulating the casualties from potential atomic explosions have accrued more than 40 million views.
At the Stanford Internet Observatory, at Stanford University, research manager Renee DiResta says she saw this coming.
“I think Tik Tok really lags other big social media players in not having [mitigative] policies in place,” she told Bloomberg Technology.
“I opened up my [TikTok app] the other night, and my very first video that began to play was a video game and it had a nameless account.
“It was a shooting video game, and they were claiming that this was a scene of a conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Twitter has been pretty good about labelling or throttling these, Facebook as well. But on TikTok, there it is with a million likes, and it is right there.”
Ms DiResta said identifying the provenance of content on TikTok was particularly problematic, given that it lacks “that very basic state media labelling”. This means that when content is “produced by propagandists, the audience doesn't know".
She said users simply did not have the time or were not digitally savvy enough to run a reverse image search of a clip from a video.
Even those paid to pay attention to manipulated footage can find it hard to know what to believe.
TikTok's alternate reality
“I think [TikTok is] probably just the more advanced and refined version of other social media platforms,” Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, chairman of business psychology at the University College London, told The National.
“Deep fakes basically make it almost impossible to tell whether something is real or not.
“For example, when somebody sent me the clip of [US President] Joe Biden saying 'the Iranian people' instead of 'Ukrainian people', you have to really watch it multiple times to see if that's real.
We have known for a long time that a surplus of information creates a poverty of attention
Prof Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, University College London
“The reaction of [Vice President] Kamala Harris and [Speaker of the US House of Representatives] Nancy Pelosi … might have been faked as well.”
TikTok is part of a digital ecosystem in which a surplus of information creates a poverty of attention, according to the academic.
“If you a devote maximum five or 10 seconds of focus to stuff, that obviously makes it very hard to check whether what you're seeing is real or not,” he said. “It is very hard to isolate yourself from news stories and information.
“Before you could choose not to turn on the telly and that was fine. Today, you can't because you have to isolate yourself from everyone digitally in your network.”
TikTok and war: 'sensational' bedfellows
Social media does not only create more information, it also sensationalises it.
This sensationalism “lends itself very well to the context of war, according to Mr Chamorro-Premuzic, who pointed out there has been a macabre relish to the way social media channels have seemed to draw strength from the Russia-Ukraine war at a time when the sensationalism around the coronavirus pandemic is petering out.
“This is something that is novel and is way more extreme than a [weakening] pandemic certainly, if you factor nuclear warfare,” he said.
“The whole world is kind of focused on this story only, so it makes it very easy for people to decide where to focus — content creation.”
The nexus between TikTok's nuclear content and its young audience is open to exploitation by misinformed or malevolent parties, he said
Screengrab from the TikTok account @sebastiank22.
“They are not part of a generation that lived through the Cold War,” said Mr Chamorro-Premuzic.
That period saw pamphlets produced by official channels that offered far more reliable information than that now being disseminated.
A booklet from the Cold War describing how to build a family shelter in case of nuclear attack. Alamy
“[Their] existence is the perfect target for manipulation. Put it this way, think about the degree of expertise and information and time that you need to have to even scrutinise possibilities, like would Russia use a nuclear bomb or not? It is not a simple question.”
There is a counterpoint. The platform — along with other social media — provides the war-oppressed with the chance to shine a spotlight on the terrors of conflict in real time, as well as the chance to rebuff misinformation.
Ukrainian travel blogger Alina Volik has switched from her day job to chronicling how life has changed in her beloved country and she has a large following for her posts.
Another user with more than two million followers, @zaluznik, has urged “Russians to open their eyes” to the Putin administration.
A screengrab of a video from the @zaluznik TikTok account. Photo: TikTok
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says 'we are all here' in Kyiv, in a video posted on his Facebook account. AFP
Mr Chamorro-Premuzic said it is hard to quantify the proportion of good and bad use, but said that social media platforms such as TikTok do give marginalised people a voice.
“I think for anyone who is covering the events independently and has followers and has freedom of speech or an opinion that would actually not be broadcast otherwise, it is very powerful seeing images [and] being informed immediately on what is happening right now,” he said.
“All of those are potential positives. And let's not forget that if your goal as a consumer or user of these platforms is to be informed and learn with a little bit of intelligence and time, you can curate your feed” so as to not be so dependent on “noise” or bias news that is being propagated.
Whatever the motivation behind the use of TikTok in this conflict, social media is now an indelible part of modern warfare — its polarisation and lack of nuance consonant with the deep-rooted human proclivity to tribalism.
“Whether you are talking about potential innocence, diseases or threats, there is a universal human condition or quality, which is to try to make sense of things,” said Mr Chamorro-Premuzic. “We don't cope with ambiguity or ambivalence very well. That is why you have conspiracy theories.”
He believes this condition makes war“a very good opportunity” for social media platforms because they “create the illusion of certainty".
So, not only could the world be witnessing a seismic change in its geopolitical landscape, it could also eclipse traditional wartime journalism.
“I think why there is a lot of sense to the argument that any journalism or media kind of channel or outlet that does not become very polarised and gravitate towards one extreme or the other is losing interest,” said Mr Chamorro-Premuzic.
How to help or find other cats to adopt
There are many that often look for volunteers or other types of assistance. They include:
Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Recharge as needed, says Mat Dryden: “We try to make it a rule that every two to three months, even if it’s for four days, we get away, get some time together, recharge, refresh.” The couple take an hour a day to check into their businesses and that’s it.
Stick to the schedule, says Mike Addo: “We have an entire wall known as ‘The Lab,’ covered with colour-coded Post-it notes dedicated to our joint weekly planner, content board, marketing strategy, trends, ideas and upcoming meetings.”
Be a team, suggests Addo: “When training together, you have to trust in each other’s abilities. Otherwise working out together very quickly becomes one person training the other.”
Pull your weight, says Thuymi Do: “To do what we do, there definitely can be no lazy member of the team.”
UAE jiu-jitsu squad
Men: Hamad Nawad and Khalid Al Balushi (56kg), Omar Al Fadhli and Saeed Al Mazroui (62kg), Taleb Al Kirbi and Humaid Al Kaabi (69kg), Mohammed Al Qubaisi and Saud Al Hammadi (70kg), Khalfan Belhol and Mohammad Haitham Radhi (85kg), Faisal Al Ketbi and Zayed Al Kaabi (94kg)
Women: Wadima Al Yafei and Mahra Al Hanaei (49kg), Bashayer Al Matrooshi and Hessa Al Shamsi (62kg)
The specs
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Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
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Specs
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Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Uefa Nations League
League A:
Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Spain, France, England, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Iceland, Croatia, Netherlands
League B:
Austria, Wales, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Ukraine, Republic of Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Turkey
League D:
Azerbaijan, Macedonia, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Latvia, Faroe Islands, Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Liechtenstein, Malta, Andorra, Kosovo, San Marino, Gibraltar
What vitamins do we know are beneficial for living in the UAE
Vitamin D: Highly relevant in the UAE due to limited sun exposure; supports bone health, immunity and mood. Vitamin B12: Important for nerve health and energy production, especially for vegetarians, vegans and individuals with absorption issues. Iron: Useful only when deficiency or anaemia is confirmed; helps reduce fatigue and support immunity. Omega-3 (EPA/DHA): Supports heart health and reduces inflammation, especially for those who consume little fish.
EPL's youngest
Ethan Nwaneri (Arsenal) 15 years, 181 days old
Max Dowman (Arsenal) 15 years, 235 days old
Jeremy Monga (Leicester) 15 years, 271 days old
Harvey Elliott (Fulham) 16 years, 30 days old
Matthew Briggs (Fulham) 16 years, 68 days old
RESULTS - ELITE MEN
1. Henri Schoeman (RSA) 57:03
2. Mario Mola (ESP) 57:09
3. Vincent Luis (FRA) 57:25
4. Leo Bergere (FRA)57:34
5. Jacob Birtwhistle (AUS) 57:40
6. Joao Silva (POR) 57:45
7. Jonathan Brownlee (GBR) 57:56
8. Adrien Briffod (SUI) 57:57
9. Gustav Iden (NOR) 57:58
10. Richard Murray (RSA) 57:59
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
MATCH INFO
CAF Champions League semi-finals first-leg fixtures
Tuesday:
Primeiro Agosto (ANG) v Esperance (TUN) (8pm UAE)
Al Ahly (EGY) v Entente Setif (ALG) (11PM)
Lt Gen Erik Petersen, deputy chief of programs, US Army, has argued it took a “three decade holiday” on modernising tanks.
“There clearly remains a significant armoured heavy ground manoeuvre threat in this world and maintaining a world class armoured force is absolutely vital,” the general said in London last week.
“We are developing next generation capabilities to compete with and deter adversaries to prevent opportunism or miscalculation, and, if necessary, defeat any foe decisively.”
Company profile
Name: The Concept
Founders: Yadhushan Mahendran, Maria Sobh and Muhammad Rijal
Based: Abu Dhabi
Founded: 2017
Number of employees: 7
Sector: Aviation and space industry
Funding: $250,000
Future plans: Looking to raise $1 million investment to boost expansion and develop new products
Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
La Mer beach is open from 10am until midnight, daily, and is located in Jumeirah 1, well after Kite Beach. Some restaurants, like Cupagahwa, are open from 8am for breakfast; most others start at noon. At the time of writing, we noticed that signs for Vicolo, an Italian eatery, and Kaftan, a Turkish restaurant, indicated that these two restaurants will be open soon, most likely this month. Parking is available, as well as a Dh100 all-day valet option or a Dh50 valet service if you’re just stopping by for a few hours.
The Equaliser 2
Director Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Denzel Washington, Bill Pullman, Melissa Leo, Ashton Sanders
Three stars
The biog
Job: Fitness entrepreneur, body-builder and trainer
Favourite superhero: Batman
Favourite quote: We must become the change we want to see, by Mahatma Gandhi.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 38,387
Karl Malone 36,928
Kobe Bryant 33,643
Michael Jordan 32,292
LeBron James 31,425
Wilt Chamberlain 31,419
Company Profile
Name: Thndr Started: 2019 Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr Sector: FinTech Headquarters: Egypt UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi Current number of staff: More than 150 Funds raised: $22 million
Packages which the US Secret Service said contained possible explosive devices were sent to:
Former first lady Hillary Clinton
Former US president Barack Obama
Philanthropist and businessman George Soros
Former CIA director John Brennan at CNN's New York bureau
Former Attorney General Eric Holder (delivered to former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz)
California Congresswoman Maxine Waters (two devices)
England 290 & 346
Sri Lanka 336 & 226-7 (target 301)
Sri Lanka require another 75 runs with three wickets remaining
The Bio
Hometown: Bogota, Colombia Favourite place to relax in UAE: the desert around Al Mleiha in Sharjah or the eastern mangroves in Abu Dhabi The one book everyone should read: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It will make your mind fly Favourite documentary: Chasing Coral by Jeff Orlowski. It's a good reality check about one of the most valued ecosystems for humanity
