xenia 🌊

Ultimately, this is what I believe media (any media) at times of tragedy should be for: either offering a helping hand, or showing a way for the people to do so. The difference between the spectacle and shedding the light on the situation is very simple, and it’s the heart.

Thank you for reading!

I myself was simply a bridge that tried to connect as many people as possible to trusted sources of information and actual ways to help before inevitably collapsing into the mountain river of illness and pain.

To all of you who supported us back then and still do: thank you, and I’m sorry.

I had people sending me instructions on basic self-defence and how to make Molotov cocktails more efficient. There were people feeding us, praying for us, and physically coming into the country to fight with our army against what many back then already knew to be a common enemy.

I could’ve done significantly better, but still managed to help, and only thanks to how wonderful the people who followed me were. They believed in us before their governments did. They helped us buy tourniquets for our bleeding soldiers and trucks for their evacuation.

> that it will all be over soon once they win.

All things considered, I’m kind of amazed I managed to go on for several months before breaking completely and utterly. Especially for someone who has been living with this aggression since 2014 (I’m from Crimea, we were occupied by Russia back then).

> trying to use you for their next scoop, crypto scammers promising you tens of thousands of dollars for scamming your audience, desperate people asking you for help because they have family in one of the cities currently flattened by Russia, and of course your Russian family calling to tell you >

> you can’t sleep in the middle of the night because there are gun sounds outside (enemy spies? or friendly fire because of panic?). At the same time, there are people in your DMs asking if you have an OF, other creators calling you names behind your back trying to start dRaMa, journalists >

5. Going viral at times of war has all the same perks and flaws of going viral at any other time, plus there are missiles in the background, blackouts, your town is emptying because of how many are fleeing, the ones staying are digging trenches and building fortifications, and >

> in the environment that has no effective tool against the social media insanity spilling into the real world. In fact, it’s encouraged by the likes of ketamine Adolf behind the current abysmal version of Twitter and Mark ‘midlife crisis’ Metaberg. & they both could be the next co-owners of TikTok.

The government officials show no desire to restrict them (in fact, they are more than happy to exploit this power for their benefit), so I believe the responsibility to keep the social media at bay should be with legacy media. And they are also failing at this. And thus we’re here: >

4. The scams that flourished around that time showed the danger of the TikTok algorithm, and how it can be used for spreading misinformation. TikTok is no different from other major social media platforms: they are businesses, and moderating for them means restricting their own profits.

But an element of surprise is what always gets them, as well as improvising and showing creative approach. Couple of weeks into the full-scale Russian invasion they started calling people like me western agents and Soros employees, which was like… really, tovarish major, that’s the best you can do?

We can never outmatch them in terms of quantity and resources: one me in her bedroom can’t fight a machine that’s been functioning since the Soviet times, has endless resources, presence in Western legacy media, as well as tons of Western bloggers, celebrities and journalists on its payroll.

…and that means time (information appears - reaches a division of FSB in charge - they analyse it - they think of a retort - they agree on it - they send out instructions), which is why raw creativity and individualism will always win against their propaganda machine at the start.

They were also mostly confused re: how to deal with people like me (not a state propagandist, lives in Ukraine, speaks English, can meme, has a Master’s in Polisci and background in teaching etc). The thing w/ Ru bots and trolls is that they require an instruction from their FSB/GRU curator,..

3. In early 2022 TikTok was still largely ignored by the mainstream public because of the stigma surrounding it and how unserious it was. That meant less credibility for people like me, but also that Russian propaganda presence on TikTok was minimal. Their bots started to pop up after 24.02.22.

Guess what: they started hating us anyway, and I don’t care anymore lmao. Tell Marjorie Taylor Greene to get into her marjmobile this very instance, people are being mean to her negative IQ on the worldwide web!!

> as the main (and sometimes only) Ukrainian source for thousands of people. I couldn’t voice my own opinions freely, but had to act diplomatically (couldn’t criticise some of the moronic Western politicians freely, because what if their cultist voters get offended and start hating all of Ukraine?!)

2. In late ‘21-early ‘22 the Ukraine topic was fresh and trending in the Western legacy media, and there was a genuine desire to learn more from the public. Our (Ukrainian) government wasn’t responding to this demand, and I found myself in a peculiar situation of having to act extra-careful: >

1. TikTok algorithm was made to serve you videos that you are likely to respond to/care about (like any other social media, just more sophisticated). *A lot* of people care about others suffering, hence why I managed to build an incredible community who genuinely wanted to help.

YouTube video by Xena Solo The power of TikTok

I did a video about the time I went viral on TikTok covering the war in my country. Here are some additional reflections/clarifications on the topic:

youtu.be/izyNKOfc2Pw

🌞🌸 I like it here much better than on the you-know-where!

I’m glad! It feels good to be posting again too!

Thank you, the dogs and the fam are all doing good! ☺️

Howdy 🤠

Gotta be ready to fight off Musk if he shows up and tries to ruin this one as well! 🤺

How I feel on here (cozy) vs the platform formerly known as Twitter (confused, overstimulated, gradually losing my mind)