The conflict between Ukraine and Russia is a war that has spread beyond physical borders, expanding into digital spaces where it has been fought from an information perspective. Social media is a fertile field for the representation of this conflict, in particular the TikTok platform, so much so that it has earned the nickname the first TikTok War. In the first months, conflict-related videos were shared on a massive scale, until they encountered resistance from TikTok’s new policies, which to date have not been entirely transparent. For this reason, most of the content has been and continues to be removed from the platform, following criteria dictated mainly by nationality and user profiling. These videos, however, represent the war perception of a very defined social cross-section, the users of TikTok. Analysing them from this point of view, they represent important documentation for the purpose of understanding the type of information shared on TikTok and the ways in which users have manifested and expressed their opinion on this issue. It is therefore necessary to counteract the strong removal of content in order to preserve these documents and make them available to the public. Against this backdrop, this research thesis explores the behaviour of TikTok in the removal of content and analyses the level of discrepancy between TikTok Ukraine and TikTok Russia in conflict-related content. From the results of these analyses starts the design of an alternative archive, or counter archive, that can provide adequate tools for the critical search of media content that might otherwise be removed from their source archive, TikTok. In a perspective of archaeological activism, the project aims to provide alternative points of view through which to look at a certain topic, subverting the logic of TikTok which, through its profiling algorithm, customises content according to the user’s personal tastes. Furthermore, it provides a storytelling using the data obtained from the collection, aiming to make the audience understand the amount of content removed from the platform, and the difference in information dissemination between TikTok Ukraine and TikTok Russia. The output of this research thesis is the result of the design of an archiving methodology based on a counter-archiving activity, the main objective of which is to subvert the purely algorithmic logic of TikTok in order to make room for a more critical use of content on the platform.
Il conflitto tra Ucraina e Russia è una guerra che si è estesa oltre i confini fisici, espandendosi in spazi digitali in cui è stata combattuta dal punto di vista dell’informazione. I social media sono un campo fertile per la rappresentazione di questo conflitto, in particolare la piattaforma di TikTok, tanto da guadagnarsi l’appellativo di first TikTok War. Nei primi mesi i video inerenti al conflitto sono stati condivisi in maniera massiva, fino a incontrare, qualche tempo dopo, una resistenza proveniente dalle nuove policy di TikTok, ad oggi non del tutto trasparenti. Per questa motivazione, la maggior parte dei contenuti sono stati e continuano ad essere rimossi dalla piattaforma, seguendo criteri dettati principalmente da nazionalità e profilazione dell’utente. Questi video, tuttavia, rappresentano la percezione della guerra di uno spaccato sociale molto definito, gli utenti di TikTok. Analizzandoli da questo punto di vista, rappresentano una documentazione importante ai fini della comprensione del tipo di informazione condivisa su TikTok e delle modalità attraverso cui gli utenti hanno palesato ed espresso la loro opinione riguardante questa tematica. Risulta necessario quindi contrastare la forte rimozione dei contenuti, al fine di preservare questi documenti e renderli disponibili al pubblico. In questo contesto, la presente tesi di ricerca esplora il comportamento di TikTok nella rimozione dei contenuti e analizza il livello di discrepanza tra TikTok Ucraina e TikTok Russia nei contenuti inerenti al conflitto. Dai risultati di queste analisi parte la progettazione di un archivio alternativo, o counter archive, che possa fornire strumenti adeguati alla ricerca critica di contenuti multimediali che potrebbero altrimenti essere rimossi dal loro archivio di provenienza, TikTok. In un’ottica di attivismo archeologico, il progetto si pone come obiettivo quello di fornire punti di vista alternativi attraverso cui guardare ad una certa tematica, sovvertendo le logiche di TikTok che, attraverso il suo algoritmo di profilazione, personalizza i contenuti in base ai gusti personali dell’utente. Inoltre, fornisce uno storytelling utilizzando i dati ottenuti dalla raccolta, che miri a far comprendere al pubblico la quantità di contenuti rimossi dalla piattaforma, e la differenza di diffusione delle informazioni tra TikTok Ucraina e TikTok Russia. L’output di questa tesi di ricerca è il risultato della progettazione di una metodologia di archiviazione basata su un’attività di counter-archiving, che ha come obiettivo principale quello di sovvertire le logiche prettamente algoritmiche di TikTok per dare spazio ad una fruizione più critica dei contenuti sulla piattaforma.
wartok: sovvertire le logiche di tiktok per un contro-archivio dei video sul conflitto russo-ucraino
Riccardelli, Raffaele
2021/2022
Abstract
The conflict between Ukraine and Russia is a war that has spread beyond physical borders, expanding into digital spaces where it has been fought from an information perspective. Social media is a fertile field for the representation of this conflict, in particular the TikTok platform, so much so that it has earned the nickname the first TikTok War. In the first months, conflict-related videos were shared on a massive scale, until they encountered resistance from TikTok’s new policies, which to date have not been entirely transparent. For this reason, most of the content has been and continues to be removed from the platform, following criteria dictated mainly by nationality and user profiling. These videos, however, represent the war perception of a very defined social cross-section, the users of TikTok. Analysing them from this point of view, they represent important documentation for the purpose of understanding the type of information shared on TikTok and the ways in which users have manifested and expressed their opinion on this issue. It is therefore necessary to counteract the strong removal of content in order to preserve these documents and make them available to the public. Against this backdrop, this research thesis explores the behaviour of TikTok in the removal of content and analyses the level of discrepancy between TikTok Ukraine and TikTok Russia in conflict-related content. From the results of these analyses starts the design of an alternative archive, or counter archive, that can provide adequate tools for the critical search of media content that might otherwise be removed from their source archive, TikTok. In a perspective of archaeological activism, the project aims to provide alternative points of view through which to look at a certain topic, subverting the logic of TikTok which, through its profiling algorithm, customises content according to the user’s personal tastes. Furthermore, it provides a storytelling using the data obtained from the collection, aiming to make the audience understand the amount of content removed from the platform, and the difference in information dissemination between TikTok Ukraine and TikTok Russia. The output of this research thesis is the result of the design of an archiving methodology based on a counter-archiving activity, the main objective of which is to subvert the purely algorithmic logic of TikTok in order to make room for a more critical use of content on the platform.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/204274