Russia has accused Ukraine of a TikTok trend featuring insults against teachers
Russian teenagers are posting videos on TikTok that humiliate teachers, but Russian officials have claimed that Ukrainian intelligence agencies are allegedly behind this trend. According to Russian sources, such content is primarily shared among Russian users, but it also appears on accounts from Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine.
This was stated by Vyacheslav Volodin, Chairman of the Russian State Duma, on his Telegram channel, according to Russian media reports.
Volodin called the trend a “provocation” and noted that videos insulting Russian teachers “are not a game.” “We are receiving reports of offensive videos about teachers being illegally circulated on social media. Reports of this are coming in from various cities. A similar situation is unfolding in Belarus and Kazakhstan as well. I want to emphasize that this is a provocation,” the Russian official stated.
In addition, he claimed that Ukrainian intelligence agencies are behind the dissemination of these videos. And the goal of this “provocation” allegedly lies in involving Russian children in the dissemination of “destructive content.”
“Ukrainian intelligence agencies and those who sponsor them are behind this. In this way, they use children to attract an audience to their platforms. So that they can later recruit them into banned communities and spread destructive content among them and through them. There are those who profit from this by blackmailing and demanding payment for the removal of published posts,” the propagandist stated.
Russian media also note that sharing videos containing insults directed at teachers could result in criminal liability for the authors. In particular, media outlets are issuing warnings that the authors of such posts can be easily identified and held accountable. They mention fines that may be imposed on individuals who have reached the age of 16.
What is known about the viral trend
The trend mentioned by Russians is created to the soundtrack featuring the voices of the main characters from the series “Stranger Things.” To the sound of “Dustin, Lucas, Will, Mike, me,” students are posting videos featuring photos of their teachers, whom they categorize as good or bad. The thing is, the final frames show teachers whom the students dislike, so their photos are set to audio containing profanity.
Among the creators of these videos are teenagers not only from Russia; Ukrainian teachers have also been caught up in this trend. For example, Alina Mets, a teacher from Chernivtsi who is popular online, spoke about this in her TikTok blog. She also appeared in a similar video.
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