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Accepted Paper:
“The First TikTok War”: narratives of conflict and emergency on TikTok.
Elena Liber
(University College London)
This paper will explore narratives from the war in Ukraine as they unfold on TikTok. It will consider the ethical and methodological challenges of working in a time of emergency, and reflect on what these challenges might mean for the crafting of a responsive and urgent anthropology.
Paper long abstract:
In the early hours of 24th February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In this moment of emergency, many took to TikTok to share in real-time what was taking place on the ground. The most downloaded app of 2020-21, and the fastest growing social media platform, TikTok provided Ukrainians with a means to communicate the lived reality of war, to live stream air raid sirens, and document life in metro stations and air raid shelters. War correspondents and journalists launched TikTok accounts to share their reports from cities under fire. And many used the platform to access urgent information about what was going on. The war in Ukraine has been described as “The First TikTok War”.
Drawing on a combination of ethnographic research carried out between 2016-18 in L’viv, Ukraine, and recent research carried out as part of the TikTok Ethnography Collective, this paper will explore narratives of the war in Ukraine as they unfold on TikTok. It will consider the ethical and methodological challenges of working in a time of emergency, and reflect on what these challenges might mean for the crafting of a responsive and urgent anthropology.