BBC News has launched a TikTok account – despite previously saying that it had no plans to create content for the platform.
The U-turn comes after access to BBC News was blocked in Russia. Speaking in a press release, Jamie Angus, Senior Controller of News Output and Commissioning, said that the organisation was looking for ways to ensure its news was available for those who needed it. Thee new account, which currently has more than 2000 followers, has so far posted two TikTok videos about the conflict in Ukraine.
Laura García, BBC News Mundo journalist and TikTok creator, added that people seeking news on TikTok were finding unverified information.
“It has become really clear with how people are sharing information about the conflict in Ukraine, [that] TikTok is the main source of news for a lot of people,” she said. “The change of circumstance because of the war made the BBC realise that there is almost a democratic duty to being in this space where people are looking for information.”
BBC’s second thoughts on TikTok
In January, BBC News head of social Jeremy Skeet told the Press Gazette that BBC News was not planning to venture into TikTok as it did not have the resources to create video solely for the platform. “We’re only going to go on these platforms if editorially we think they’re the right platforms to be on,” he said.
García, who began creating TikTok videos in 2020, welcomed the launch but was hesitant about the timing. “It’s really terrible that it took a war and appalling acts of government censorship to bring us to a place where the BBC saw less risk or more to gain out of having a TikTok account than not having one.”
“As journalists we have a duty to be where people are. It’s like being a local reporter and not attending the village fete, you are missing out on a key public space where people talk to each other, where communities are bred,” she said.
Garcia added that some news organisations had dismissed social media as frivolous. “In reality, when you learn the space and you learn how to decode the signals and you learn to understand the etiquette of a particular social media network, wherever there are people, there will be important information, both to use as news gathering and as a way to tell news stories.”