Global Courant
With a bald head, a thick beard and dressed in a military uniform, a Chinese influencer claimed to be a Russian Special Forces soldier who fought in the war in Ukraine.
The content creator who used the online alias “Pavel Korchatie” and had nearly 400,000 followers on the short video app Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, is reported to be sharing his “firsthand” experience of the war, the South China Morning Post reported.
His videos typically began with a greeting to viewers in Mandarin — “Hello, friends from China” — followed by his personal stories from the war, which inspired many social media users to cheer on the Russian troops, SCMP reported.
In one video, he was seen standing in front of an alleged power plant and claimed to have captured Ukrainian prisoners, the newspaper added.
The Insider reported that his face regularly became distorted in his videos – a telltale sign that he was using deepfake AI technology to mask his identity.
As his following grew, he started an e-commerce business through an online store on Douyin, where he offered a range of Russian specialties, including honey, beer and vodka, according to SCMP. He received more than 200 orders.
However, his trick came to light when Douyin users discovered that the IP addresses displayed in his videos were mainly from the Henan province of central China, which also matched his Mandarin accent.
An alleged Ukrainian nuclear power plant seen in the video also turned out to be a power plant in Luoyang, a city in Henan, and the cars seen in the background of the video had mainland Chinese license plates, SCMP reported.
Douyin has since cracked down on the content creator. In a statement, the social media company said: “Some accounts have posted videos claiming to be from Russia and soldiers at war. They are spreading false information such as ‘battlefield videos’ and ‘battlefield movements’ to attract attention and traffic.”
Douyin added that it has indefinitely banned the account, which violated the app’s rules.
It is not the first time that a Chinese influencer has pretended to be a foreigner to gain popularity online, according to SCMP.
In 2022, social media observers expressed doubts about an influencer named “Russian Nana”, whom they accused of being a Chinese man posing as a Russian woman by using face-swapping technology.
The influencer had more than two million Douyin followers and used his popularity on the platform to boost e-commerce sales.
