Banner: Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Burkina Faso’s interim President Ibrahim Traoré can be seen together on a poster with the slogan “Support for the transition” on a street in a suburb of the Burkinabe capital Ouagadougou. (Source: Christina Peters/dpa via Reuters Connect)

Several TikTok accounts are targeting West African audiences with French-language pro-Russia, pro-Alliance of Sahel States, and anti-France narratives. The videos generally revolve around three main themes: portraying Russian President Vladimir Putin as a global leader supportive of African nations, glorifying African leaders like Burkina Faso’s Ibrahim Traoré, and criticizing French President Emmanuel Macron’s approach to African relations and the Russia-Ukraine war. These accounts often present themselves as fringe news outlets, sharing AI-generated narration over videos and photos stolen from established local media outlets, and from Russian state broadcaster RT. Some accounts left the watermark of the AI software they used to create their videos. Notably, ten accounts exhibited suspicious behavior, posting nearly identical content that promoted Putin and Russian activities in West Africa.

Previous DFRLab investigations have revealed how suspicious YouTube channels and Facebook accounts targeted audiences in Africa with pro-Kremlin narratives using similar tactics, including the use of AI-generated content. The DFRLab furthered this research by analyzing patterns on TikTok, focusing on pro-Russia accounts with thousands of followers and high engagement.

Given the challenges of analyzing suspicious activities on TikTok due to the platform’s limited search functionality, the DFRLab focused on twelve accounts that serve as a case study of how the platform can be used to spread Russian propaganda.

The narratives published by the TikTok accounts praised Putin and emphasized the benefits of Russian and African cooperation. They promoted the leaders of the countries in the Alliance of Sahel States, abbreviated as AES in French, with particular emphasis placed on the leaders of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. 

Applying TikTok’s sort by popularity filter to the analyzed channels showed that some videos have received significant views. One of the most popular videos was posted by AES INFO, which claimed Macron was frustrated over purported communications between French politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Russia. At the time of writing, the video had received 150,000 plays, 2,500 likes, and 1,300 comments.

Also among the most popular content were videos of African leaders meeting with Putin or other Russian officials. For example, a fourteen-second video by Allô Afrique posted on June 11, 2024, of Burkina Faso interim leader Traoré greeting Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov received over 80,000 plays, 811 likes, and twelve comments. Another similar video, published by the same account on June 27, showed Putin greeting Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso; it received over 35,000 plays, 920 likes, and twenty-seven comments.

The format of many of the videos posted by the accounts consisted of narration over stolen imagery. At least eight accounts appeared to use AI-generated narration and scripts for their videos. An indicator that AI was used to generate the scripts is the repeated use of similar words. A previous DFRLab investigation identified similar tactics being applied on YouTube.

Several videos posted by the accounts StarNewsFlash and Actualiteé Politique used the AI-narration tactic to share videos that attacked Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron. The videos all opened with the French word “Incroyable” (Incredible). The account Afrique Aux Africains (AAA) posted several similar videos praising Burkina Faso’s Traoré; these videos also appeared to use AI-generated narration.

In some instances, the TikTok videos contained a label marking the content as AI-generated. At least 140 of the videos posted by the account FasoMediaTV, which has over 100,000 followers and 300,000 likes, had a “Creator labeled as AI-generated” label. Users can declare content as “AI-generated or significantly edited with AI” when uploading videos to TikTok, or content can be reported as AI-generated by other users. The platform also automatically adds an “AI-generated” label if an account uses “TikTok AI effects” or uploads content from “certain other platforms.”  While many of FasoMediaTV’s videos have this label, we identified that many similar videos uploaded by this account did not have this label. In one case, the same video was uploaded three times and two had the label and one did not. Notably, the video without the label was cropped or resized, possibly to avoid detection. Other accounts also received this label on their posts, though not as frequently. In addition, a few of the videos uploaded by the account contained a watermark for Vidnoz, a website that uses AI to create videos.

Another suspicious indicator was the posting of similar or almost identical content across the different accounts. For example, the accounts Afro Promoteur and Organisation d’appui à l’AES published on the same day identical posts praising Putin, using the same photo, narration, on-image text, caption, and hashtags. The only difference between the posts was the color choice for the on-image text. The posts often portrayed Putin as a leader who is supported globally and who supports African countries in fighting imperialism.

Most of the accounts presented themselves as news accounts or fringe media outlets. They often posted content stolen from different established news outlets, including France’s BFM TV and La Chaîne Info, Burkina Faso’s Burkina24, and Mali’s national public broadcaster Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision du Mali (ORTM).

The accounts also reposted content from Russian state-funded broadcaster RT, which was banned from TikTok in 2022. For example, a post by the account Organisation d’appui à l’AES, published an RT report critical of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Further, some of the accounts repackaged RT content with their own branding in a possible attempt to avoid the restrictions placed on the Russian broadcaster.

Two identified accounts, Reconquete TV and Héro d’Afrique, promoted a marketing agency named Burkina Insights. The bio for both accounts is a link to a blog post published on August 10, 2024, promoting the marketing agency’s website builder.

Both Reconquete TV and Héro d’Afrique were present on other social media platforms, such as YouTube. While most videos and posts made by Héro d’Afrique’s YouTube channel, created in June 2024, focused on news updates regarding Traoré and his engagements with other African leaders, one unrelated post contained an advertisement for a furniture cleaner. The email used to create Héro d’Afrique’s YouTube channel was also used to create a similar channel named Panafricana Vision, which posted content focused on Burkina Faso, but it did not have a corresponding TikTok account.

It is possible that accounts such as Reconquete TV and Héro d’Afrique were motivated by profit rather than ideology, as there are indicators that they may be connected to advertising agencies.

Digital Forensic Research Lab, “TikTok accounts target West Africa with AI-generated content promoting Putin and regional leaders,” Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), August 30, 2024, https://dfrlab.org/2024/08/30/tiktok-accounts-target-west-africa-with-ai-generated-content-promoting-putin-and-regional-leaders/.