Ukraine has not made any statements about the “failure of the counteroffensive” or accusations against China. Cybersecurity expert Vitaliy Yakushev only voiced the information that the Chinese social network TikTok has access to the contents of a user’s phone and uses the data in favor of Chinese intelligence.
Russian media spread another fake about the Ukrainian counteroffensive. Pro-Kremlin media claim that Ukraine is allegedly accusing China and the social network TikTok of “failing” its military operations. Russian media wrote that Ukraine “admitted the failure of the counteroffensive,” emphasizing that the Ukrainian Armed Forces were prevented from advancing by “Chinese hackers and a globally popular video service created in China.”
“The Kyiv regime has been trying to justify its failure with all sorts of excuses: bushes in the way, Russian military being too well trained, allies refusing to give F-16s and not inviting them to NATO,” Russian media wrote.
The Russian media’s disinformation is based on a lengthy interview with Ukrainian cybersecurity expert Vitaliy Yakushev on the We Are Ukraine TV channel. Yakushev did not make any statements about a Ukrainian counteroffensive; the interview was solely about security in the digital world. Answering the host’s question about whether the popular Chinese social network TikTok collects user data, the expert said: the program has access to absolutely all the content on your phone, from photos to passwords and geolocations. This applies to ordinary users of the social network and the Ukrainian military.
“This is the Chinese approach. They even collect encrypted information that passes through their country in order to decrypt it and use it for intelligence. It’s worth remembering that all Chinese apps – TikTok, WeChat messenger, and other Chinese apps – get the maximum number of permissions on your phone, collect information and send it to China. If you also have a Chinese-made smartphone, they have complete carte blanche. They collect everything they can from your phone and pass it on to their intelligence services, which is a mandatory condition in China. Then it’s easy to guess with whom the Chinese special services cooperate. It’s the Russian FSB and GRU, who share this information with them,” Yakushev emphasized (see video from 00:33:40).
Representatives of Western security services and Western governments have also repeatedly warned that the Chinese company ByteDance, which owns TikTok, is subject to a number of Chinese national security laws that oblige companies to cooperate with intelligence. According to Chinese law, China’s intelligence services are given carte blanche to use the data of millions of TikTok users around the world. It is noted that the government of the People’s Republic of China influences ByteDance, can control user content, and forces TikTok to transfer user data in accordance with various Chinese laws governing cybersecurity and data security.
In February 2023, the White House banned the use of Chinese TikTok on federal devices and systems, based on Western security services’ findings. Similar bans on the use of the Chinese social network on official devices for cybersecurity reasons are in place in Canada, New Zealand, European Union institutions, a number of EU governments, and the United Kingdom. ByteDance denies the accusations of TikTok’s surveillance of users.
StopFake has repeatedly refuted Russian fakes about the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. For more details, read “Fake: Zaluzhny Calls Ukraine’s Counteroffensive a Clown show“, “Fake: Zelenskyy is Disappointed with The Progress of Ukrainian Counteroffensive“, “Fake: Ukrainian Counteroffensive Will Suffer a Crushing Defeat“.
