🎥 BBC presenter, investigative filmmaker & award-winning journalist I🎙️Host: What in the World I 📨WhatInTheWorld
@bbc
.co.uk I 📲WhatsApp:+4403301233226
Our investigation found children in camps in Syria are begging on TikTok Lives - while TikTok takes 70% of donations given to them. It’s taken months of work with
@BBCArabic
and BBC Eye to shed light on this… here’s how we found out 🧵
We interviewed
@marwasf
from non-profit
@accessnow
. She said TikTok was "creating and enabling an ecosystem that runs on the exploitation of people's suffering... in violation of its own policies and of the human rights" of displaced Syrian families. Such a powerful interview:
I made this film in memory of my grandpa, David Herman. It’s the most personal story I’ve ever told on the BBC. My family is one of the ones that wasn’t meant to live, but we were more 200 people standing in Prague’s old town recreating a photo from 1945.
But the phone she's using isn't hers. It belongs to Hamid, a 'TikTok middleman' who lives in the camp and told us he sold his goats to buy it. He films with 12 different families, for a 2-3 hours at a time, several times a day.
We built a programme to scrape TikTok data and monitor spending on TikTok gifts. The lives we tracked regularly received over $1000 an hour in gifts, but the families say they get very little. TikTok wouldn't tell us what cut it takes, so we decided to test it out...
@BBCArabic
I began to follow some accounts livestreaming from Syria, and thanks to TikTok's algorithm, I found more than 300... and noticed that the children were often saying the same thing...
Hamid says he uses UK SIM cards to get his livestreams in the feeds of British TikTokers - he says they're the most generous. We found a shop selling UK SIM cards near the camp. The shopkeeper said the SIMs have doubled in value because people are using them for TikTok
@BBCArabic
It all started in June, when I was contacted on Twitter and TikTok about this strange new trend. Lots of people were calling the videos scams
So... what's next for TikTok? On my account this morning, I could still find dozens of families begging in Syria for live gifts... and now we know that almost 70% of the donations goes directly to TikTok
Mona lives in this camp with her 6 daughters. Her husband was killed in an airstrike and her daughter Sharifa is nearly blind. She goes on TikTok Live to make money for an operation to save Sharifa's sight
But some families feel exploited, like Dowkan, who says he wasn't allowed to stop the livestream to eat or take his medicine. He was saving up to pay for heart surgery for his daughter. After 8 days of TikTok lives, he says he was only paid $14.
So... how did these accounts suddenly all appear at the same time, livestreaming from north-west Syria? We asked Mohammed Abdullah, a local journalist about it
We were worried about the families so spoke to local charity
@takafulalsham
. It said it would give basic supplies to the families we interviewed for 3 months, help children find schools & pay school expenses. The charity said people should donate through licensed NGOs, not TikTok
We wanted to test it out. We asked Mohammed Abdullah, the Syrian journo we'd been working with, to go live from a camp near Idlib. From an account in London, we sent him $106 in TikTok gifts. At the end of his Live, the balance of his account was $33
TikTok has strict guidelines about 'minor safety', but the accounts we followed regularly went live with children begging for hours. We reported 30 accounts doing this to TikTok in the app, to see what they would do about it. TikTok found 'no violation' for every single one.
To go live on TikTok, you need 1,000 followers. To get around this, 'TikTok middlemen' said they were getting help from Live Agencies in China. These agencies are contracted and paid by TikTok here: - this clip explains more:
People like
@Realkeithmason
have been joining in on the livestreams and some have donated hundreds of £. Keith also encouraged his followers to donate. Here's our interview with him.
Back to the agencies... Live Agencies we spoke to said they are paid by TikTok according 1) duration of livestreams, 2) amount of gifts received. Families in the camps were begging for hours at a time. We asked
@MattNavarra
why duration is so important to TikTok
After we'd paid our dues to the TikTok middlemen and money exchange shop, our Syrian TikToker would have made just $19... less than 20% of what we donated.
TikTok said it ended its contract with Giant_MENA. As for the 70%, TikTok says it takes less than that - but still won't say how much. We repeated the experiment with accounts in the UK & Syria that weren't signed up to agencies, and TikTok took a similar amount each time.
Most of TikTok’s downloads come from
@Apple
's App Store and
@Google
Play. Both have codes of conduct that say ‘apps that facilitate the exploitation of children' will be 'removed' or 'rejected'. They also take a 30% cut when TikTok 'coins' are bought on their devices...
When we contacted TikTok's press team and gave them the names of the accounts we reported, TikTok banned them all and said "We have removed the accounts that have violated our Community Guidelines"...
We contacted 'Martha' from the TikTok Agency that Hamid had been using. Martha created an account for us and sent us an invite to join an agency called Giant_MENA. Then, Martha contacted us every day asking us to go live. We only had 4 followers.
Super excited to be hosting What in the World, a new daily pod from the
@bbcworldservice
, dropping wherever you get your podcasts weekdays from July 31st. We'll be chatting about all things mental health, climate change, social media and pop culture.
What in the World is a new daily news podcast for 16-24 year olds from
@bbcworldservice
.
From 31 July, presenter
@hannah_gelbart
will be chatting to BBC reporters around the world and discussing global stories and events.
Going live on Sunday - My World is the new global programme for teenagers I've been working on for the past 6 months, with Angelina Jolie and
@bbcworldservice
We’re trying out something new and calling it ‘self-help by news’: giving our listeners information they can trust that makes them feel better about the world, and more in the know. I’ve been up since 6am talking about it on
@bbcworldservice
Well this was a shift with a difference! Angelina Jolie and nine pupils from
@ChallonerCFS
joined me in Broadcasting House - filming for a new
#bbc
programme for teenagers - My World - launching globally in January
Really beautiful things are coming out of these strange times. I'm working on a story for
#BBCMyWorld
about teens (12-18 yrs) around the world doing acts of kindness. Looking for case studies
#journorequest
#COVID
ー19
#coronavirus
If you're tired of hearing about problems, here's a cool solution: using satellites and mobile phones to help people financially affected by Covid-19. I made this film with
@jblumenstock
@cinalawson
and
@GiveDirectly
for
@bbcworldservice
Podcast here:
Togo has developed a new, high-tech way to get money to the poorest people affected by the pandemic
Download the
#peoplefixingtheworld
podcast for more:
One week until the launch of What in the World, our new
@bbcworldservice
podcast! Today I packed a bunch of colourful T-shirts to film TikToks and Reels with
@georgievayani
for stories we’ll be talking about next week… Tune in, every weekday, from 31st July
#BBCWhatintheWorld
More than 6 months on, families in camps in Syria are still begging for gifts on TikTok. So this week, I got back in front of the camera for an entrevista with
@JuanjoMrtnz
and
@EqInvestigacion
about all things TikTok. Their documentary is coming out soon on
@laSextaTV
TikTok has announced changes to livestreaming and is banning children from going live from November. Last week, our investigation found hundreds of accounts going live from Syrian camps, with children begging for donations. Here's the story:
Today we’ve published our latest investigation into Telegram, speaking to women from around the world whose nude photos have been leaked on the app without their consent. This is an important story about women’s safety online - please read:
In 2022, I investigated how bad actors make money online from humanitarian crises, like the wars in Ukraine and Syria. Here’s a special episode about it for
@BBCtrending
“We are the living evidence that the Nazi’s plan to exterminate the Jews - failed.”
It’s so important to continue to tell the stories of the Holocaust. My latest report out this morning on
@BBCRadio4
@BBCFooC
(about 23 mins in):
@MoustafaAyad
from
@ISDglobal
first told me about
#YalaNews
, a supposedly impartial news site sharing glossy videos about global politics. He noticed it was posting the same stories published by Russia Today and Sputnik in video format, and some were getting millions of views…
🍌 🇪🇨 Drug cartels are using banana shipments to smuggle cocaine out of Ecuador. A presidential candidate was murdered. Violence has exploded
@anamaroura
explains why Ecuador became so violent and what’s being done to stop it
🎙️listen here:
In the weeks since the women's football World Cup final, and Luis Rubiales non-consensual kiss, a new feminist movement has emerged in Spain:
#seacab
ó - it's over. The BBC's
@mc_montoya
spoke to me about what it could change in Spanish society.
🎧
A Yemeni girl’s journey, from cancer to recovery
@OrlaGuerin
visits six-year-old Yusra, who had a life-threatening tumour removed, after her story was told on the BBC
#BBCNewsSix
#BBCNewsTen
[tap to expand]
I spoke to disinfo experts
@93Bcr
,
@MoustafaAyad
and
@ruarigh
who all say it’s extremely likely Yala News is ‘laundering’ Kremlin propaganda. It's a bit like money laundering: the idea is to take disinfo/ propaganda and get it more widely shared, whilst hiding where it comes from
One year on from the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran,
@bbcbaran
and
@kiansharifi
tell me how it impacted a generation of young people growing up there.
🎙️ Listen to our podcast
#BBCWhatintheWorld
:
Our first ep is up! I spoke to
@SofiaBettiza
, Kelly Ng,
@willyleeadams
and Dr Dominic Canova about how heatwaves affect your mental health.
Listen here:
📻
Heatwaves are bad for your mental health.
From higher crime rates to more swearing on social media –
@hannah_gelbart
breaks down some of the weird things that happen to our brains when the temperatures soar.
📻
Heatwaves are bad for your mental health.
From higher crime rates to more swearing on social media –
@hannah_gelbart
breaks down some of the weird things that happen to our brains when the temperatures soar.
📻
I found the company reg on Companies House and went to the address, but found no Yala staff or offices there. Just a 'virtual office service' company called British Monomarks
I started out as a trainee BBC journalist 7 years ago. Now I’m reporting TV and radio documentaries for
@bbcworldservice
. The schemes that helped me get here are open for applications and highly recommended for all future journalists:
#BBCCareers
#BBCGetIn
Bolsonaro supporters used code words to organise the storming of Brazil’s Congress, inviting people to a “party” and posting a recipe online. Great working with
@julianagragnani
and
@ricksenra
on this piece:
TikTok put out a push notification to all users about its policy changes, just a few days after our story was published. I was interviewed about the changes for
@BBCRadio4
,
@BBCTechTent
and
@bbcworldservice
. Listen here:
I found scams trying to make money from the
#TurkeySyriaEarthquakes
on nearly every platform - TikTok, Twitter, PayPal, phishing emails, fake charity websites. Have a listen to my chat with
@jamesbbcnews
on
#bbcos
Among Yala Group’s clients are pro-Syrian regime journalists and celebrities, including state TV reporter Shadi Halwi, who owns Sada FM radio station - funded by sanctioned Syrian businessmen, the Katerji brothers
@BeverlyOchieng
@BBCMonitoring
You guys did such a great job explaining and answering all our questions in this complex story. Will we ever find out all the answers? Who knows 🤷♀️
Working with
@93Bcr
from
@CIR
, we looked at the most-viewed videos on Yala News from 2022 and found nearly all the stories could be traced back to Kremlin news agencies. Here's one that says "Zelensky loses his mind and reveals his love", claiming he was drunk in a video message
💊 Is Syria dealing drugs?
Captagon, aka “poor man’s cocaine”, is an addictive party drug made in Syria, and has recently flooded the Middle East.
@emirnader
told me he’d found links to the Syrian government. Fascinating stuff - have a listen to our chat:
Today we're chatting about
#EmmaCoronel
, the “narco queen” at the heart of El Chapo’s drug cartel, her 'buchona' style, and the human cost of narco violence in Mexico:
But we did find the CEO’s profile on social media. He’s a Syrian businessman living in Dubai. And from geolocating pictures of his staff and offices, we found the whole operation is run from Syria - a longtime ally of Russia
Working with BBC’s brilliant language services to share this story as widely as possible. Here’s a version I presented for
@bbcmundo
produced by
@lauragrb
and
@aglatourrette
Powerful episode by
@willyleeadams
and Kristina Volk about Holocaust denial and antisemitism in Germany. Definitely worth listening to: the scandal forcing Germany to reckon with its Nazi past
The tenth episode of
#BBCMyWorld
is out - this is what you need to show teenagers who have questions about
#coronavirus
Episode Ten - BBC My World via
@YouTube