In Colombia, where the differences between social classes are palpable, the vision of money and wealth is tempting. As a result, young people from rural areas often join the rebels because of their desire for a better future. Recruitment of new reinforcements has been facilitated by the dawn of social media, especially TikTok, which the guerrillas have become rather fond of.
TikTok is currently one of the most preferred online platforms in the world. It is highly popular, particularly among youth. Due to a special algorithm which constantly offers new and interesting content, users can spend hours and hours surfing through TikTok.
However, a growing number of countries worldwide are starting to look critically at the platform. Harmful content and misinformation, which is easily accessible to younger users, are not the only problematic aspects. TikTok also represents a security risk. The Chinese company ByteDance, owner of the online platform, has raised concerns among European and American lawmakers because of the possible sharing of sensitive data with the Chinese government, including location or biometric identifiers.
Therefore, in 2020, India imposed a nationwide ban on the platform. Moreover, several countries, including Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, prohibit their government employees from using the TikTok app on official devices. The same ban applies to employees of the European Parliament, the European Commission and the European Council. In addition, US lawmakers voted in favour of a law requiring ByteDance to either sell its stake to a US company or face a nationwide ban in the US.
Apart from this, Colombia has one more problem regarding the popular platform. Colombian rebels have become active on TikTok, using it to recruit young people into their ranks.
In 1964, the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rose against the Colombian government. The country was suffering from civil war for more than fifty years. The conflict caused around 260 thousand deaths. It was one of the longest-running armed conflicts in the world. Only in 2016 the Colombian government and the FARC rebels signed a peace pact.
However, some FARC members disagreed with the pact. They decided to break away from FARC and form their guerilla groups. The fighting, therefore, continues. Colombian President Gustavo Petro is currently negotiating with various rebel groups in an attempt to finally put an end to the conflict. According to the latest information, the humanitarian situation in the country has deteriorated significantly.
“Armed influencers“
Videos with catchy songs, revolutionary slogans and shots of coca fields. This is just an illustration of what kind of content shared by Colombian rebels from the Estado Mayor Central (EMC), a faction that broke away from the FARC, looks like.
The current number of EMC members is estimated at 3.5 thousand. The FARC had approximately 20 thousand members at its peak. The guerillas obtain money mainly from the drug trade and from maintaining control over the country’s agricultural areas.
The British media outlet BBC has identified 50 TikTok accounts that promote Colombian rebels. Some of them have already been removed, whereas new ones have appeared.
A teacher who wishes to remain anonymous told the BBC that while support for rebels used to be more secretive, it has become completely normalised. This applies to schoolchildren as well. When the teacher walks into the classroom, she often sees her students drawing revolutionary symbols on the blackboard or dancing to revolutionary songs.
According to her, all it takes is for one student to come up with TikTok videos featuring rebels, and after a while, others will repeat their actions. The teacher mentioned that it had happened to her multiple times when she had stopped seeing a student in school, and after a couple of days, she would see them on TikTok in videos as one of the insurgents.
Guerilla groups glorify their lifestyle in videos on TikTok. They present it to young people as a life where they can have lots of jewellery, money, women and cars. However, accounts promoting rebels do not mention any risks associated with being a member of an insurgent group.
Clement Roux, a researcher at the Center for Media Analysis (CARISM), describes Colombian rebels as armed influencers who take selfies during conflicts.
Offering young people a place where they can belong
The rebels also utilise the narrative of social injustice in Colombian society to recruit more people. Colombia is one of the most unequal countries in Latin America. For this reason, young people from rural areas perceive the lifestyle propagated by guerillas as a possibility of a better future for them.
But insurgent groups hold another ace in their hands – a sense of belonging. Many of the people who joined rebels did it to escape domestic violence. Rebel groups, on the other hand, have always tried to create the impression of a big, welcoming family.
Young people who did not find their place in the world may thus be naturally attracted to such an adventure. After all, members of guerrilla groups often share posts with each other depicting men riding horses or crossing rivers together.
According to the Colombian Ombudsman’s Office, 184 young people were recruited by insurgents during the year 2023. In the first half of 2024, there were 159 people. All of them are under the age of 18. However, the Office warns that these are the official figures and the real numbers might be much higher.
Sebastián Martínez, a member of the EMC, denies the existence of similar propaganda with the purpose of recruiting minors. However, he admits that from time to time, things get out of their hands. But as he said, they try to regulate such incidents.
Colombia has long struggled with the recruitment of minors into rebel groups. With the dawn of social media, the situation has become even gloomier. Posts propagating insurgents are easily accessible to young TikTok users, due to which the guerillas have a wider reach. Furthermore, TikTok is unable to remove inappropriate content quickly enough while dealing with more and more newly created posts.
The author of this article is Dominika Dragúňová. The text was originally published at infosecurity.sk.