TikTokers are latching on to explosion and screaming audios to create fake videos of Russia invading Ukraine

• Amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, many fake and misleading videos are spreading online.
• Some TikTok users are lifting other creators' audios and stitching them to irrelevant footage.

Fake and misleading videos of Russia invading Ukraine are spreading on TikTok, with specific explosion and screaming sounds gaining traction and being used by people attaching them to misleading footage.

Since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a land, sea, and air assault against Ukraine on early Thursday morning, the internet has ignited with solidarity messages, surreal memes attacking Russia, and pictures and videos depicting the scene.

Among these videos spreading across the web are fake or otherwise manipulated ones.

Many users on TikTok and other platforms have created videos using footage from the past and claiming that it shows what is happening in Ukraine.

One video, first discovered by the disinformation researcher Abbie Richards, has gained over 6 million views in less than a day. The video shows a dark skyline and then someone running through a house. The audio, which has since been removed, included a couple of people yelling "oh my god" and then a loud explosion.

The audio appears to have originated from a 2020 YouTube video depicting an explosion in Lebanon, according to Richards.

Another recently uploaded TikTok showing a parachuting soldier gained over 20 million views, with many comments referencing the invasion in Ukraine, although a person with an identical handle had shared it on their Instagram in April 2016, according to NBC's Ben Collins.

"Videos with altered context, like this one, are known as cheapfakes," Collins wrote on Twitter.

Other creators have misused TikTok's audio functionality — where any creator can take another video's soundtrack, and which is most often used for lip sync videos and comedy skits — and produced TikToks with misleading explosion and screaming noises.

One audio, which was initially used in a video on February 14, has been used in other, inauthentic videos with millions of views. The six-second audio features a rapid spree of gunshot sounds and people screaming in the background.

One of the most popular videos using the audio has gained over 3 million views in less than 4 hours since it was published on Friday morning. The video shows a plane flying out of control in the sky and on-screen text, translated from Indonesian, that says "russian plane hit by ukraine soldiers" and a crying-laughing emoji.

The same creator has made other videos about the invasion appropriating other users' audios, including one with over 26,000 views that uses an audio from November 2021 that appears to show a child screaming in fear.

Another user's audio — an 11-second soundtrack with a few explosion noises — has been used in over 580 videos. The original video, which has over 28 million views and shows a flash of light and color bursting in the distant horizon, appears to be an authentic clip.

Many of the videos using its audio are just screen captures and reuploads of the original video, but there are also videos that take the audio and stitch it to another unrelated scene, apparently with the intent to gain clicks.

One of these clips has over 45,000 views and depicts a few trees; another one shows a house and a gray sky, and the camera judders as soon as an explosion sound occurs. A common theme between these fake videos is a shaky camera, which makes the clip appear chaotic or more "realistic."

"We continue to closely monitor the situation, with increased resources to respond to emerging trends and remove violative content, including harmful misinformation and promotion of violence," a TikTok spokesperson told Insider. "We also partner with independent fact-checking organizations to further aid our efforts to help TikTok remain a safe and authentic place."

Fake or misleading clips are also spreading on other platforms.

On Facebook, a now-deleted post accrued at least 19,000 views featuring a number of clips that it claimed portrayed Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But at least two of the clips in the post were not from this month, while another was from a YouTube trailer video for the game "War Thunder," according to the fact-checking organization Full Fact.

Richards created a TikTok video on Thursday sharing the misinformation trends she'd noticed and advice on how to spot inauthentic videos.

"Some videos are using scary audios from other videos to make it look like they're in the middle of conflict when they aren't," she said. "Check and make sure that the audio is from the video that you're watching."

Viewers can click on the audio tag at the bottom of the screen to see where that audio originates.

Richards added that "not all the footage" is necessarily relevant and could be reposted from a long time ago and to be vigilant.