Video-sharing social networking service Tiktok is donating £5 million to the Royal College of Nursing Foundation to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.
The Royal College of Nursing Foundation will be receiving a £5 million donation from Tiktok, which it will be using to provide support to frontline nurses facing hardship amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
So far, this is the largest donation made by a social media firm to a British organization involved in the fight against the coronavirus. The donation is part of a $325 million fund set up by the Chinese social networking company to provide relief during the crisis.
The fund will not entirely be released in the form of cash as $125 million will be given out as ad credits. This will be distributed between small-to-medium sized businesses, non-governmental organisations, local authorities and health bodies.
Showing support for UK nurses
With the donation, Tiktok aims to demonstrate support for nurses, many of whom have posted videos to its platform over the past month.
Recently, videos with the hashtag #NHS were trending on the app, with more than 189 million views. Among the top search results were videos featuring hospital nurses and doctors dancing to popular music.
Tiktok's UK general manager said: "Despite the huge challenges frontline healthcare workers face on a daily basis, I have been enormously heartened by what we are seeing on our platform."
Health secretary Matt Hancock stated: "I'm delighted that TikTok is supporting the RCN Foundation which brings so much support to so many."
Criticism of social media companies for misinformation
Social media companies, including Tiktok, have been facing increased criticism over their lack of effort towards addressing misinformation about Covid-19 on their platforms.
Carl Miller, research director of the centre for the analysis of social media (CASM) at the think tank Demos, pointed out that this is "an extremely sensitive public policy moment for them all."
"Platforms like Facebook and Twitter and TikTok have become our public space. They know they are on another frontline themselves [and] governments may well legally require the tech giants to deal with misinformation," added Miller.
Initiatives to battle coronavirus
Despite the criticisms, several social media firms have shown their support in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Jack Dorsey, founder of microblogging site Twitter and payment app Square, pledged to donate $1 billion towards initiatives tackling the coronavirus pandemic. Dorsey emphasized that the donation represents around 28% of his wealth.
To fund the donation, Dorsey will use shares he owns in Square and will be coursed through the Start Small Foundation. He currently serves as CEO of both Twitter and Square.
Meanwhile, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have pledged $25 million from their tech and science research company, the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), towards a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s research project
Called the Covid-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, the research project aims to develop and test antiviral drugs that could be used to fight the virus.
In a tweet, Apple chief executive officer (CEO) Tim Cook said the firm will be making face shields for medical workers.
The tech firm plans to produce over one million face shields weekly, which will first be shipped to the US and then distributed worldwide. Apple will also be donating 20 million face masks which it sourced to help prevent the spread of the virus.
