A BBC investigation found that refugees in Syrian refugee camps begged for donations on TikTok, and TikTok took as much as 70% of the donations. TikTok said it would take appropriate action to combat “exploitation and begging,” saying its cut of digital gifts was well below 70 percent, but declined to give specific figures. Earlier this year, TikTok users noticed a live stream from a Syrian refugee camp family in the content feed, and some users feared fraud. The BBC’s fieldwork in refugee camps found the trend was driven by “TikTok middlemen” who provided camp families with smartphones and devices to stream live. The middleman’s work agency is affiliated with TikTok China and the Middle East and is part of TikTok’s global strategy to recruit streamers to encourage users to invest more time in the app. TikTok’s algorithm recommendation is based on the geographic location of the user’s mobile phone number, and the middleman prefers to use the British SIM card, saying that the British are the most generous. The BBC tracked 30 accounts for five months and found that refugee accounts could receive as much as $1,000 in donations for an hour of livestreaming. But refugees said they received only a tiny fraction of the total donations. The BBC conducted an experiment: a reporter contacted an intermediary saying that after obtaining an account in a refugee camp, BBC staff in London, England sent him a gift of $106 from another account. But the test account ended up receiving only $33, which means TikTok took 69% of the donations. Other donors thought it was absurd when they learned of the withdrawal rate. In fact, the entire $33 is still not available. The middleman will take 35%, and the cash withdrawal from the local money transfer store will take 10%, leaving only $19. One middleman said he was taking a cut because he had to pay for cellphones, Wi-Fi and SIM cards.
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