A conscript enters a recruiting center in Lviv, Ukraine.Anastasiia Smolienko/Future Publishing via Getty ImagesMykola Sokalskii, a Ukrainian film producer, is being enlisted to fight against Russia.He is also one of the powerful moderators of r/Ukraine — a huge clearinghouse for news of the war.The subreddit grew more than tenfold during the war — and gave Sokalskii a vivid insight into the fight he's joining.A man who spent two years moderating one of the internet's most influential sources of information on Ukraine is being called up to fight against Russia.Mykola Sokalskii, a 39-year-old film producer from Kyiv, started live-streaming on Reddit in 2020 after the pandemic began.Then, a few months before Russia invaded in February 2022, he joined r/Ukraine as a moderator, one of the users empowered to help shape the subreddit's conversation.Speaking to Business Insider, Sokalskii said the subreddit "skyrocketed" in popularity on Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, swelling from 80,000 members to 906,000.It became a key source of information on the war, often breaking news of major events and featuring gritty combat videos that mainstream journalists scrambled to confirm.It was also a community — a strongly partisan one — coordinating fundraising efforts to get equipment and aid to soldiers on the front line.Sokalskii — who uses the username "JesterBoyd" — said he uses Reddit to convey what he sees as "objective truth" about the war to its members, predominantly in the US, UK, and Germany.A shift in perspectiveHis days as a moderator are filled with reviewing heartbreaking posts detailing the tragedies in his country.
Comment on He moderated r/Ukraine, shaping how the world sees the war. Now he has to fight in it.
mfriel@businessinsider.com (Mikhaila Friel), Business Insider
Tue, 05/21/2024 - 7:53am
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