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Following a BBC report which suggested that TikTok was making money from families in Syrian camps begging for donations on its platform, we take a closer look at what’s happened and what’s being done about it.

The Report 

The much publicised, recent BBC report followed 30 TikTok accounts broadcasting live from Syrian camps for people displaced by the 11 year-long war in the country. Its main findings were as follows:

– “TikTok middlemen” in the camps had provided families with phones and equipment to go live and gave them access TikTok accounts. These middlemen, in this case affiliated to TikTok in China and the Middle East said they worked for agencies, also known as “livestreaming guilds”, which are part of TikTok’s global strategy to recruit live streamers and encourage TikTok users to spend more time on the app.

– Once set-up on TikTok, the families, adults, and children used daily TikTok livestreams to beg for digital donations, repeating phrases such as “Please like, please share, please gift.” The BBC has reported that the TikTok middlemen were using British SIM cards suggested to families that they should aim their pleas at UK people because they are likely to give the most generously.

– The BBC observed TikTok viewers donating digital gifts with streams earning up to $1,000 (£900) an hour.

Families Received A Fraction of the Money 

The crux of the report was not just the sad sight of the begging families, the role of the middlemen, plus the fact that many people donated in good faith and urged others to do so but also that:

– TikTok is alleged to have taken around 70 per cent of the digital donations as commission.

– The TikTok middlemen also took around a 35 per cent commission of the remainder.

Profiting From Misery? 

All of this translated into media accusations that TikTok was greedily profiting from displaced Syrian refugees and was playing a part in “exploitative begging.”

The war in Syria has displaced around 13 million people, with 12 million being food insecure, 50 per cent now living in extreme poverty. Nearly 5.8 million are children.

How Was This Evidence Uncovered? 

The BBC has claimed that it was able to uncover what appears to be exploitative activity by building a computer program to scrape information from 30 of the Syrian camp TikTok accounts of over 5 months. This was part of a wider operation by BBC’s Global Disinformation Unit, BBC Arabic and BBC Eye Investigations which claim to have followed more than 300 TikTok accounts livestreaming from north-west Syria.

It also claims to have used BBC staff in London to send TikTok gifts and measured the amount that actually reached a test account, set up through TikTok-affiliated agencies. One example it gave was that BBC staff sent $106 in donation and the end balance in the account following a livestream was $33. This appeared to indicate that TikTok had taken 69% of the value of the gifts in commission.

What Did TikTok Say? 

TikTok has been reported as saying that the livestream begging is a violation of its Community Guidelines and that it has now taken action to remove such accounts from its platform. TikTok is also reported to have said that it would terminate its relationship with the agency in question and will be writing to all its LIVE agencies to remind them of their contractual agreement to adhere to its policies.

TikTok is also reported to have said that it took significantly less than 70% of donations made on the livestreams in question, and that it will be expanding its global policies around exploitative begging. The social media giant has also said that it will soon let users run adult-only livestreams although it is not yet clear how this could be enforced.

Child Privacy Issues 

This is not the first time TikTok has faced accusations about the protection of users, particularly children on its platform. For example, in September the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issued the company with a notice of intent (preceding a potential fine). This related to allegations that in May 2018 and July 2020, TikTok may have processed the data of children under the age of 13 without appropriate parental consent. It is also alleged that TikTok failed to provide proper information to its users in a concise, transparent, and easily understood way and processed special category data without legal grounds to do so. That said, TikTok is reported to be only one of 50 different online services that the ICO is looking at in relation to the Children’s Code.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

The reports of the BBC investigation have many sad and disturbing aspects to them, not least the plight of the war-refugees in the first place. This investigation, however, has led to the revelation that a social media platform familiar to young people everywhere and associated mainly with fun videos may have been playing host to (and profiting from) the misery of refugees and particularly children. There are also the disturbing allegations about the part that agency middlemen affiliated with TikTok may have played in facilitating what’s been termed “exploitative begging.” This may all be more evidence of how social media companies need to do much more to effectively enforce and update their own rules and policies, particularly in protecting children and the vulnerable. TikTok does provide a way for people to make money on its platform but in this case, it seems that the company’s system was flawed in a way that has damaged the company’s reputation, allowed others to be exploited, and may have allowed affiliated agencies to act in a less than satisfactory way, the details of which were only discovered by a third-party. TikTok has said that it is acting with regards to the accounts in question and its agencies, yet it is worrying that social media platforms generally are still places that appear to need surveillance and pressure from the outside to pick up on risky areas and improve safety, privacy, and other important factors for users.

(ISC)2’s 2022 Cybersecurity Workforce Study has highlighted how the workplace skills gap, particularly the gap in the number of cyber security professionals, has grown by 26.2 per cent in the last year.

All Time High – But Still Not Enough 

The study revealed that even though the global cybersecurity workforce is at an all-time high, with an estimated 4.7 million professionals, and with the addition of 464,000 more cybersecurity professionals this year alone, it’s still not enough. The data on which the study is based suggests that a massive 3.4 million more cybersecurity workers are likely to be needed to secure assets effectively, and that 70 per cent of respondents report that their organisation doesn’t have enough cybersecurity employees.

Why The Increasing Demand? 

The (ISC)2 highlights “geopolitical tensions and macroeconomic instability, alongside high-profile data breaches and growing physical security challenges” as the main drivers of the increasing demand for cybersecurity professionals.

Increase In Cyber Security Staff Expected 

Despite the sizeable skills gap in the number of cyber security professionals over the last year, there is some optimism as 72 per cent of the study’s respondents said that they expect their cybersecurity staff to increase somewhat or significantly within the next 12 months. This is a very promising predicted growth rate when compared to the last two years, i.e. 53 per cent in 2021 and 41 per cent in 2020.

Skills Gap Anyway 

There has long been a digital skills gap in the UK anyway which has affected the competitiveness of UK businesses and posed a major challenge to the UK government’s vision of making the UK a global technology centre. For example, back in 2018, a Nominet survey showed that less than half of UK adults have the digital skills needed to easily complete a number of common tech tasks, and in 2020, The Open University’s new ‘Leading in a Digital Age’ survey noted digital skills shortages that UK businesses and organisations faced (63 per cent of senior business leaders report a skills shortage for their organisation) and a regional divide in those companies reporting skills shortages, i.e. more employers in the South/Southwest reporting that digital skills were in short supply.

The same survey also highlighted how business leaders felt they lacked the tech skills to manage in the digital age, with more than three-quarters acknowledging that they could benefit from more digital training. There has also long been a gap in the number of women pursuing tech careers.

Effects Of The Pandemic 

At the end of 2020, it appeared that remote working and accelerated digital transformation deepened the disconnect around skills and it was felt that more workers needed to be equipped with in-demand IT skills.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

Increasing cybercrime, geopolitical tensions, macroeconomic instability, and the complications caused by the pandemic have all increased the online security risk that businesses face and, therefore, the demand for more cyber security professionals. The challenge is that there simply aren’t enough of them fully trained or available yet in the labour market to meet the demand despite the optimism among most businesses that they will be able to find enough cybersecurity staff in the next 12 months.

The introduction of new qualifications, greater availability of cyber security courses and training could help. The (ISC)2 report also noted that some work cultural and demographic factors have complicated hiring or retaining some sections of the workforce (women and non-white employees citing discrimination). However, 64 per cent of those surveyed for the report said that new certifications for skills growth and staying current with security trends could be a way for businesses to tackle issues such as the business cyber security skills gap.

New research from Gartner suggests that companies may be planning to increase their IT spend to help them meet the challenges of a recession.

The Recession 

Following the worst bout of inflation for 40 years and a shrinking economy, in September the Bank of England raised interest rates as it reported that the UK is already in recession. Many financial commentators are now predicting that factors such as the effects of the war in Ukraine, China’s tough pandemic policies, and the US heading into recession could all be contributing to a global recession into 2023.

Investing In IT To Save Money On Other Activities 

Gartner’s report highlights how businesses are projected to increase IT spending by 5.1 per cent next year to try and beat the worst effects of the recession.

According to the report, the extra IT spending will be focused on progressing the kind of IT initiatives that can curb long-term spending. The thinking behind it appears to be that businesses see IT as a way to save money on other activities, and as a way of providing ways to make them operate more efficiently. Using IT, companies could improve their internal operations in a way that could enable them to scale without adding extra staff, thereby helping them to combat some of the effects of a recession.

Software And Services 

The Gartner report indicates that most of the increased IT spend will be on software and services. Software spending (worldwide) is predicted to rise from $790 billion this year to $879 billion in 2023 – a growth rate of 11.3 per cent. Spending on IT services is predicted to rise from $1.25 trillion this year $1.35 trillion next year – a growth rate of 7.9 per cent. Spending on data centre and other on-premises services also look likely to increase.

Not Devices 

The Gartner report, however, predicts that there will be a small decline in spending on end-user devices in 2023 due the effects of inflation on consumer purchasing.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

High energy costs and the pressures of recession look set to challenge businesses in the year(s) ahead to find ways to operate more efficiently. The Gartner report indicates that many businesses may consider that increasing their spend on IT services and software that could improve their internal operations in a way that could deliver cost-savings, curb long-term spending, and enable them to scale without increasing headcount. Smart IT spending in 2023 could, therefore, be a way for businesses to protect themselves from some of the effects of recession.

Concordium Blockchain, COBRA, Aarhus University, the Alexandra Institute, and the IT University in Greenland have been given DKK 3.6 million (by DIREC) to research a blockchain-based online voting system for Greenland.

What Is Blockchain & Why Might It Be Good For A Voting System? 

Blockchain is an incorruptible peer-to-peer network (a kind of ledger) that allows multiple parties to transfer information/value in a secure and transparent way. Blockchain’s co-founder Nic Carey described Blockchain as being like “a big spreadsheet in the cloud that anyone can use, but no one can erase or modify.” Blockchain is the technology upon which cryptocurrencies are built and is used to provide forgery-proof records of steps in supply chains and provenance.

It is the reliable, secure, and incorruptible qualities which may make blockchain suitable as the core technology of an online voting system.

How Would Blockchain Be Used In This System? 

Bas Spitters, associate professor at Aarhus University and researcher at Concordium Blockchain Research Center Aarhus, has said that for Greenland’s voting system “Blockchains can be used as a private and secure bulletin board” to help check that votes have been registered correctly.

Investigating 

The researchers working on the online Blockchain-based voting system particularly want to investigate whether it could be scaled-up for large elections, and whether the protocols used to verify the votes are secure and inaccessible to outsiders. Also, the researchers are investigating whether the system can be designed to give voters the opportunity to identify themselves at the same time that their private information is protected.

Why An Online System Anyway? 

As highlighted by Concordium’s CTO, Kåre Kjelstrøm “In Greenland, where enormous distances make it difficult for people to cast their vote, an online solution could potentially increase voter participation.” 

Carsten Schürmann, professor at the IT University and Principal Investigator on the project believes that Greenland is an ideal place for a trial of an online election system because of its “limited population and great distances”. 

Challenges To Online Elections 

Kåre Kjelstrøm believes that, up until now, online elections have not been possible in a number of countries due to “distrust and a lack of regulation of ready and secure solutions.” 

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

The enormous distances which have historically reduced voter participation in Greenland’s elections prompted a law change there (2020) which has given the green light to exploring how an online voting system could work. Blockchain’s effectiveness at accurately recording steps in a supply chain and provenance plus the fact that it is incorruptible and secure have already proven very useful to many businesses in different sectors.

A voting system, where trust, security, and accuracy are required may, therefore, be something that could really benefit from the use of Blockchain technology. Wider participation could more accurately represent the views of Greenland using a system that can be trusted. If the research is successful, this kind of system could be rolled out to other countries with similar geographical challenges, but also could become the future way of voting in many countries, taking account of how many people in developed countries now do many things online, remotely, and for whom this type of system would be more convenient.

A reliable online system could also reduce the costs and complications of traditional, in-person voting, if the challenge of verification of identity could be tackled effectively.