BBC blasted for wasting money on TikTok content

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BBC News only started using TikTok for news this month following the onset of the war between Russia and Ukraine. However, BBC Newswatch host Samira Ahmed questioned whether the account simply gives away “free content to people who would never pay the licence fee”. She interviewed Naja Nielson, Digital Director of BBC News, who tried to defend the BBC’s use of the Chinese-owned social media platform.

BBC News only has 12,700 followers on TikTok, compared to its 20 million followers on Instagram.

However, Ms Ahmed explained: “TikTok is now where an increasing number of people are going for their news.

“The app has become the most popular online destination by some estimates.”

Commentators have called the Russian war against Ukraine the world’s first “TikTok war”, with huge amounts of information dedicated to the conflict.

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Ms Nielson said: “We could see from the very beginning of the war that TikTok became a place with a lot of information about the war – but also disinformation about the war.

“We felt it would be wrong for us not to be there.

“We wanted to be a part of that conversation.”

However, when pressed on how TikTok works as a source of news, Ms Nielson admitted she did not know yet.

Ms Ahmed then grilled her on whether the BBC was providing “free content” or trying to “dumb down” its journalism to grab young viewers.

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She said: “Videos tend to be very short on TikTok. So do you have to try to dumb down content to work on TikTok?”

Ms Nielson responded: “Being short does not mean dumb. It means you can be more clever if fewer words. You have to work hard on what words you choose.”

Ms Ahmed then questioned why the videos on TikTok were just “repurposed TV packages cut down to two minutes” and not original content.

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She asked: “Is it driving viewers to other BBC content or is it just free content for people who would never pay the licence fee?”

Ms Nielson admitted: “We don’t have evidence for that on TikTok yet.”

Since Ukraine was invaded on 24 February, TikTok videos tagged #Ukraine have so far surpassed 33 billion views. 

One report from the New York Times found that, proportionally, Ukraine content on TikTok outpaces that on platforms more than twice its size.

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