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MANILA, Philippines – The World Health Organization (WHO), the public health agency of the United Nations, joined youth-friendly social media platform TikTok, on Saturday, February 29, as part of its information campaign on the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
“We are joining @tiktok to provide you with reliable and timely public health advice!” WHO said as it introduced itself to TikTok’s millions of users. WHO’s TikTok page can be found here.
Two videos have already been uploaded on the account. The first video features Benedetta Allegranzi, WHO’s technical lead for infection prevention and control. Allegranzi shows several familiar measures on how to prevent infection:
We are joining @tiktok to provide you with reliable and timely public health advice! Our first post: How to protect yourself from ##coronavirus ?
The second video demonstrates the proper use of face masks and who should be the ones using them. This was presented by Dr. April Baller from the WHO Health Emergencies Programme.
When & how should masks be worn in order to protect against the new ##coronavirus ?
Since Saturday, the videos have already reached millions of views.
WHO also has partnerships with other tech giants such as Google, Twitter, and Facebook, with each having a measure to point users toward WHO-approved information on the virus.
WHO’s presence on TikTok should help it reach a younger audience given the platform’s demographic that skews toward the 24- year-old and below crowd.
Amid TikTok’s growth, it has come under fire from the US government, believing it could be used as a spying tool for China, ironically the epicenter of the novel coronavirus that has already reached 60 countries and claimed over 3,000 lives. (READ: Global coronavirus death toll passes 3,000 with new China count)
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman and Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg recently went on the record to echo spying sentiments regarding their competitor. TikTok, owned by China-based ByteDance, responded to the accusations back in 2019, stating that all US user TikTok data are stored in the US. – Rappler.com
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