Vladdy Daddy No War, Gen Z Conscience On TikTok Amid Russia Crisis - Ukraine

Gen Z has expressed concern about a Russo-Ukrainian war on TikTok. (photo: doc. tiktok)

JAKARTA – Tensions between Russia and Ukraine have caused concern among teenagers. Fear of imminent war in eastern Europe led them to express in posts on social media.

Gen Z teens, teens and adults are now turning to TikTok and Instagram to discuss the tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Some of them even asked a leader they called "Vladdy Daddy" to refrain from starting a war.

TikTok videos are also a resource for researchers tracking the buildup of more than 100,000 Russian troops near its border with Ukraine. But Moscow denies Western accusations that it plans to attack its neighbour.

Social media users have left thousands of comments on Instagram posts from the unofficial accounts of Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent weeks. A spokeswoman for Meta Platforms Inc., said they were not aware that Putin had an official presence on Facebook and Instagram.

The nickname "Vladdy Daddy", which can also have a sexual connotation, became popular on the internet around 2016 according to the Know Your Meme meme database.

Generation Z, which researchers consider to be people born from the late 1990s to early 2010s. This includes Hanka, a 12-year-old in Slovakia who learned of the meme via TikTok and posted "Vladdy daddy please no war..." in the comments on one of the accounts.

Others left comments like " "Mercurys in retrograde Vladdy this isn't you..."

"My friends and I were playing truth or dare and they challenged me to type it," said Hanka, who was only asked to be identified by her first name, in a telephone interview with Reuters.

But the meme drew criticism on Twitter from Lena, 16, who lives in Poland. "I don't think that people who live far away and see it as just a meme or a joke should joke about it, because it's a serious situation," said Lena, who asked only to be named in a phone interview.

TikTok did not respond to a request for comment on whether there is evidence of coordinated behavior to mislead people around this trend. Many messages and videos don't say where they came from.

TikTok is one of the most popular social media platforms in Russia, with a monthly reach of more than 40 million people, according to research firm MediaScope.

TikTok has now grown explosively in recent years. Meanwhile, the app, which is owned by a Chinese technology company, ByteDance, was known in the past for its viral challenges and teen dance trends. However, this application is growing and even provides political content.

"It's fascinating the way TikTok connects a younger audience to politics and world events," said Nina Jankowicz, a researcher who works with the UK-based Center for Information Security to verify open source content on the crisis. "No other platform really does that to the same degree."

But he believes online engagement is unlikely to result in offline action, such as large-scale protests. Videos explaining the Russo-Ukrainian crisis have also circulated, some from the West and others apparently from Russia.

Now, through TikTok, many teenagers who are worried about the outbreak of war are starting to express their voices so that war does not happen. This could be a worldwide movement and it feels like President Vladimir Putin, there's nothing wrong with listening to the hearts of Gen Z, who don't see war happening.