A New Lease on Life for Relics of the Cold War

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been widely called the “First TikTok War” because of the flood of videos from the front lines, or at least purporting to be.

- By Alex Webb. Illustration by George Wylesol

But the fire hose of war content—often of unclear provenance—on social media has made it harder than ever to know what’s credible. A video might be the work of Russian or indeed Ukrainian propagandists or even come from a teen in Tennessee looking to make a quick buck with recycled viral content. “We have to double-check everything,” Iliya Semenov, a 25-year-old web designer in Kyiv told me as Russian troops sought to encircle the city.