a long time in the life of a chancellor. marc ashdown, bbc news. now bbc news investigates a new trend on tiktok: hundreds of families in refugee camps in syria, begging for gifts on tiktok livestreams. there s a new trend on tiktok. children in camps in syria begging for hours on end. they re asking for tiktok gifts that can be withdrawn as real money. but that money isn t all going to them. we ve been following more than 300 accounts going live on tiktok, trying to work out where that money is going. tiktok has got a ferocious appetite for growth. the longer that they spend
then, mohammed checked the balance of his account. $33. so, it is 70%. wow! they re taking 70%! next, mohammed went to the local money transfer, where tiktokers cash out their earnings. the money transfer shop and the sim card shop are part of a new economy to help facilitate these transactions. from the $106 we donated to mohammed s account, tiktok took $73. that s almost 70%. the money transfer took 10% of what we had left. and hamid told us tiktok middlemen take 35% of what s left after that. so from $106, muhammad would havejust over $19.
on our investigation. hi, how are you? welcome, welcome! after all of our conversations that we ve had with tiktok and i m sitting here right outside their uk offices now i m still finding videos like this many, many videos with children being used to beg for hours. and it really makes me want to know what will it take for tiktok to stop this on their platform? we called keith again to tell him what we had discovered. we found that 70% of all of the money donated would have gone straight into tiktok s pockets. are you kidding me? that s ridiculous. it s very unfair especially to them families over in syria. you ve got to have some transparency. and, you know, to me,
the charity said it could help support these families as an alternative to making money from tiktok live. many families don t receive a fair wage for their work on tiktok. the first time dokan went live, he says he wasn t paid at all, but he wanted to try again. he was hoping to make money to pay for his daughter s heart surgery.
that s very greedy. it s greed, innit? it s greed. takaful alsham said they would support the families we spoke to with basic supplies for the next three months, help the children find schools and pay for school expenses. we asked them how people around the world could continue to donate. many people on tiktok are calling these livestreams scams, but the struggles of the families we met are very, very real. people have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to them. but the lion s share lines the pockets of tiktok and its agencies.