Families in Syrian refugee camps are begging for donations on TikTok, while the company appropriates up to 70% of the amounts received, a BBC investigation has revealed.
Children have been live streaming on the social media app for hours on end, begging for digital gifts worth money.
The BBC found broadcasts earning up to US$1,000 an hour, but found that people in the camps receive only a small fraction of that.
TikTok said it would take immediate action against “exploratory begging”.
The company said that this type of content is not allowed on its platform and that its commission on digital gifts was significantly less than 70%. But declined to confirm the exact percentage.
Earlier this year, TikTok users saw their feeds with several live streams of families in Syrian camps, drawing support from some viewers and concerns about coups.
In camps in northwest Syria, the BBC found that the trend was being facilitated by so-called “TikTok brokers” who provided families with the phones and equipment to go live.
The intermediaries said they worked with TikTok-affiliated agencies in China and the Middle East and gave families access to accounts on the platform.
These agencies are part of TikTok’s overall strategy of recruiting people to live stream and thereby encourage users to spend more time on the app.
As TikTok’s algorithm suggests content based on the geographic origin of a user’s phone number, intermediaries said they prefer to use British SIM cards. People in the UK are said to be the most generous givers.
Mona Ali Al-Karim and her six daughters are among the families who stream live on TikTok every day, sitting on the floor of their tent for hours, repeating the few English phrases they know: “Please like, share, gift “.
Mona’s husband was killed in an airstrike, and she is using the live streams to raise money for surgery for her blind daughter Sharifa.
The gifts they are asking for are virtual, but they cost viewers real money and can be cashed out.
Viewers of the live stream send gifts — from digital roses, which cost a few cents, to virtual lions that fetch around $500 — to reward or tip content creators.
TikTok takes most of it
For five months, the BBC tracked 30 TikTok accounts live streaming from Syrian camps and created a computer program to extract information from them, showing that viewers used to donate digital gifts worth up to $1,000 an hour to each account.
Families in the camps said, however, that they were receiving only a small fraction of these amounts.
As TikTok refuses to say how much of the gifts it goes with, the BBC ran an experiment to track where the money goes.
A reporter in Syria contacted one of the TikTok-affiliated agencies saying he was living in the camps. He got an account and went live, while BBC staff in London sent TikTok gifts worth $106 from another account.
At the end of the live stream, the test account balance was $33. TikTok took 69% of the value of the gifts.
TikTok influencer and former professional rugby player Keith Mason donated £300 during a family live stream and encouraged his nearly one million followers to do the same.
When told by the BBC that most of that money stayed with the social media company, he said it was “ridiculous” and “unfair” for families in Syria.
“You need to have some transparency. To me, that’s too greedy. It’s greed,” he said.
The remaining $33 of the BBC’s $106 gift was reduced by a further 10% when it was withdrawn at a local money transfer shop. TikTok middlemen would take 35% of the rest, leaving a family with just $19.
Hamid, one of TikTok’s middlemen in the camps, told the BBC he sold his cattle to pay for a cell phone, a SIM card and a wifi connection to work with families on TikTok. He now broadcasts with 12 different families, for several hours a day.
Hamid said he uses TikTok to help families support themselves. He said he transfers most of the money to them, minus their operating costs.
Like the other intermediaries, Hamid said he was supported by “live streaming agencies” in China who work directly with TikTok.
“They help us if we have a problem with the app. They unblock accounts that have been blocked. We give them the page name, the profile picture, and they open the account,” Hamid said.
‘Humiliating’
Agencies like these, known as “live streaming associations” and based around the world, are hired by TikTok to help content creators produce more compelling streams.
TikTok pays them a commission based on the duration of broadcasts and the value of gifts received, the agencies told the BBC.
The emphasis on duration means that tiktokersincluding children in Syrian camps, are live for hours.
Marwa Fatafta of digital rights organization Access Now said these live streams contravene TikTok’s own policies to “prevent harm, threat or exploitation” of minors on the platform.
“TikTok clearly states that users cannot explicitly request gifts, so this is a clear violation of their own terms of service as well as those people’s rights,” it said.
She acknowledged that people have a right to share their stories online “to try to seek support and sympathy”, but she said these live streams “are humiliating”.
TikTok’s rules state that a person must have 1,000 followers before being able to live stream, must not request gifts directly, and must “avoid harm, threats or exploitation” of minors on the platform.
But when the BBC used the in-app system to report 30 accounts with children begging, TikTok said there was no violation of its policies in any of the cases.
After the BBC contacted TikTok directly for comment, the company banned all accounts and said in a statement: “We are deeply concerned about the information and allegations brought to us by the BBC and we have taken swift and rigorous action. content is not allowed on our platform, and we are further strengthening our global policies on exploratory medication.”
TikTok, the world’s fastest-growing social media app, has generated more than $6.2 billion in gross revenue from spending on the app since its launch in 2017, according to the analytics firm. Sensor Tower.
The BBC has approached several charities that support families in camps in Syria as an alternative to earning money on TikTok.
A local charity, Takaful Alsham, said it would provide basic supplies to families for the next three months, helping children find schools and covering their educational expenses.
But for many in the fields, there are few options for making money other than online begging. Hundreds of families continue to stream live every day, and most of the money donated still goes to TikTok.
Mohammed Abdullah, Runako Celina, Cyrus Chan, Ned Davies and Katy Ling collaborated. This text was published here
I am Frederick Tuttle, who works in 247 News Agency as an author and mostly cover entertainment news. I have worked in this industry for 10 years and have gained a lot of experience. I am a very hard worker and always strive to get the best out of my work. I am also very passionate about my work and always try to keep up with the latest news and trends.
