Chinese influencer impersonates Russian soldier using deepfake filter
This man was neither Russian nor a soldier, but a resident of Henan, China
Henan, China (AFP) - An alleged "Paul Kochadie" fooled over 400,000 followers on his Douyin account (TikTok's equivalent in China) using artificial intelligence and pretending to be a Russian soldier on the Ukrainian frontline. T
This man, who sent "daily" updates about the war in Ukraine, was neither Russian nor a soldier, but a resident of Henan, China.
The influencer, known by his online alias “Pavel Korchatie”, gained more than 380,000 followers on the short video app Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, where he shared his “first-hand” experience of the war in Mandarin, according to news portal HK01.
His videos typically started 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.
In one video, he was shown standing in front of a power plant boldly claiming to have captured Ukrainian prisoners. “We are currently engaged in a life-and-death battle with the Ukrainian army,” he said.
He also boasted about fighting US Navy Seals, shooting down US military drones, and even taunted the US military by saying: “We blew up your tanks, let’s see if you are still tough.”
As his audience grew, he started an e-commerce business through a Douyin online store where he offered a range of Russian specialties including honey, beer and vodka. He received more than 200 orders.
However, eagle-eyed observers challenged the soldier’s claims, saying he was actually a Chinese man using filters to impersonate a Russian fighter with the aim of promoting and selling products online.Their evidence was substantial.
For instance, the IP addresses displayed in his videos were mostly from central China’s Henan province, and he spoke Mandarin with a strong Henan accent.
The purported Ukrainian nuclear power plant featured in the video also turned out to be a power station in Luoyang, a city in Henan, and the cars seen in the background of the video had mainland Chinese number plates.
After being exposed, he simply renamed his account “Wang Kangmei”, meaning “Wang Anti-America”, and called himself the “Vanguard Against America” in his account bio – all in an attempt to continue exploiting nationalistic sentiments to gain traffic.Douyin banned his account on June 16 for disseminating false information.
He managed to deceive many online users, with some saying: “Salute to the hero, thumbs up!” and “He speaks Chinese so well!”. Others called for better content moderation on the social media platform, saying the soldier was an obvious fraud.
“After watching his original videos, who would believe that a person with a Henan accent is a Russian soldier?” said one commenter. Some pointed out the possible political repercussions of his hoax.
“By claiming to have captured American soldiers, he was implying that the US military was directly involved in the war. Did he understand the potential consequences of his words?” one observer said. It is not the first time a Chinese influencer has pretended to be a foreigner to gain online popularity.
In 2022, social media observers raised doubts about an influencer named “Russian Nana”, whom they accused of being a Chinese man impersonating a Russian woman by using face-swapping technology. The influencer had more than 2 million Douyin followers and used his popularity on the platform to boost e-commerce sales.
