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TikTok is hosting dozens of videos that glorify violence by Russia’s Wagner Group of mercenaries, according to a new report. The US-based NewsGuard says it has identified 160 videos on the short-video platform that “allude to, show, or glorify acts of violence” by the mercenary group.
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Some of the videos appear to show the execution of a former Russian mercenary. Fourteen videos that showed footage of the apparent killing of former Russian mercenary Yevgeny Nuzhin were found on TikTok, according to NewsGuard. The videos had high engagement within days of being uploaded last month.
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Nuzhin had been serving a jail term for murder but described how he had been recruited by Wagner and was then captured by the Ukrainian military. He told Ukrainian journalists he had switched sides voluntarily and denounced the mercenary group. It is thought he was then part of a prisoner exchange and within days a gruesome video involving a sledgehammer was posted on a Wagner-linked channel on the Telegram messaging app.
