The Invasion of Ukraine Viewed through TikTok: A Dataset

Abstract

We present a dataset of video descriptions, comments, and user statistics, from the social media platform TikTok, centred around the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, an event that launched TikTok into the geopolitical arena. User activity on the platform around the invasion exposed myriad political behaviours and dynamics previously unexplored on this platform. To this end, we provide a mass-scale language and interaction dataset for further research into these processes. In this paper we conduct an initial investigation of language and social interaction dynamics, alongside an evaluation of bot detection on the platform. We have open-sourced the dataset and the library used to collect it to the public.