TikTok pledged to donate $10 million to WHO to assist with its coronavirus response efforts
Following on from its recently announced partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) on a new COVID-19 information resource on its platform, TikTok has now pledged to donate $10 million to the WHO to assist with its coronavirus response efforts.
As per TikTok:
"It's been gratifying to see the global community rally behind the true heroes of this crisis: the health care professionals around the world who are battling on behalf of us all. We believe it's essential to do everything we can to help the global health community in this fight, and today TikTok is donating $10 million to the World Health Organization's (WHO) Solidarity Response Fund. This fund helps the WHO carry out vitally important work, including sending essential supplies to front line health care workers, ensuring communities have access to the latest science-based information, and accelerating efforts to discover life-saving treatments or vaccines."
TikTok joins several other digital platforms in donating to the cause - Facebook has donated more than $100 million to various initiatives connected to COVID-19, while Google has also pledged several million dollars across a range of programs. LinkedIn, too, is among a group of companies which have pledged a collective $22 million to go to organizations on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis.
TikTok, which has seen a huge rise in interest over the past year, particularly among younger audiences, is in a position to encourage increased action among those younger groups, many of whom believe themselves to be impervious to COVID-19.
Indeed, swathes of college students still attended Spring Break celebrations in Florida last week, despite coronavirus warnings, and several of them have now been found to have been carrying the virus among the huge crowds at Florida beach.
TikTok is looking to promote official information from the WHO, including partnering with the organization on live-streams, in order to raise awareness among its audience, which could help to inspire more action on their behalf.
TikTok's $10 million donation underlines its commitment to the cause, while it may also help TikTok better ingratiate itself with local authorities, many of whom still harbor concerns about the app and the information it collects.
Of course, that's a lesser concern in this respect. The more we can allocate to the WHO, and assist in its efforts to combat the outbreak, the better, and TikTok should be praised for looking to play its part.
