TikTok Teams Up with WHO to Guide Influencers on Public Health Messaging

Written by thesociable | Published 2024/10/09
Tech Story Tags: tiktok | tiktok-who-partnership | public-health-messaging | misinformation-on-social-media | who-propaganda-strategies | health-misinformation | fides-network | hackernoon-top-story

TLDRTikTok has partnered with the World Health Organization (WHO) to combat misinformation and promote public health messaging through a network of influencers. This collaboration, which leverages trained creators to disseminate WHO-approved content, raises concerns about TikTok's role as a potential propaganda tool for global health narratives, reminiscent of previous UN initiatives to control messaging on social media platforms.via the TL;DR App

TikTok continues to be a propaganda arm of the United Nations and the World Health Organization: perspective

TikTok and the World Health Organization (WHO) enter a one-year partnership to train influencers and promote regime-approved content concerning public health on the social media platform.

On the 26th of September, 2024, TikTok put out aĀ press releaseĀ on the partnership, saying that it was a way for the social media company ā€œto create reliable content and combat misinformation.ā€

ā€œToday, we’re partnering with the World Health Organization (WHO) to create reliable content and combat misinformation through theĀ FidesĀ network, a diverse community of trusted healthcare professionals and content creatorsā€

Tiktok Press Release, September 2024

https://x.com/TikTokComms/status/1839279959061225657?embedable=true

Working with the WHO’sĀ Fides network, TikTok will provide training on how to best disseminate WHO propaganda.

ā€œThrough our collaboration with WHO, we will be engaging Fides creators to translate complex scientific research into relatable and digestible video content, expanding across various health topics.

ā€œTo further equip creators, we will be working closely with WHO to provide access to creator training programs and resources,ā€ the TikTok press release reads.

The WHO’sĀ FidesĀ network consists of some 800 creators and was launched in 2020 with the purpose of ā€œmobilizing health content creators to counter misinformation and elevate evidence-based content.ā€

Today, Fides boasts reaching 150 million users across various platforms.

Another part of the WHO-TikTok partnership is to suppress any information that doesn’t align with the unelected globalist health body.

ā€œPeople are increasingly being targeted with misinformation and malinformation on these digital channels. The new collaboration between WHO and TikTok is to help addressing these challenges by promoting evidence-based content and encourage positive health dialoguesā€

World Health Organization (WHO) Press Release, September 2024

https://x.com/WHO/status/1839355594576409054?embedable=true

ā€œThis is where WHO can step in to support influencers in delivering evidence-based information, ensuring that health conversations on platforms like TikTok are both impactful and informedā€

Dr Alain Labrique, WHO Director of Digital Health and Innovation, September 2024

https://x.com/TimHinchliffe/status/1692214997647077817?embedable=true

The WHO also put out aĀ press releaseĀ on the partnership, explaining how certain influencers would be chosen and targeted to be propagandists for the regime:

ā€œThe collaboration will expand efforts around a number of relevant health topics, translating science-based information into relatable and digestible video content, with more support for influencers provided through TikTok’s creator training programs.ā€

According to the WHO, the goal of the partnership is to leverageĀ ā€œmultiple digital communication platforms to increase outreach to people globally, to promote health literacy, healthy behaviors and actions in an increasingly digitized world.ā€

This isn’t the first time a UN organization has partnered with big tech to deliver its messaging.

ā€œWe own the science, and we think that the world should know it, and the platforms themselves also doā€œ

UN Comms Director Melissa Fleming, World Economic Forum Sustainable Development Impact Meetings, September 2022

In September 2022, UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications Melissa Fleming told a World Economic Forum (WEF) panel on disinformation that the UN had partnered with TikTok on a project called ā€œTeam Haloā€ to boost COVID messaging coming from medical and scientific communities.

ā€œAnother really key strategy we had was to deploy influencers,ā€ she said, adding, ā€œinfluencers who were really keen, who have huge followings, but really keen to help carry messages that were going to serve their communities, and they were much more trusted than the United Nations telling them something from New York City headquarters.ā€

ā€œWe had another trusted messenger project, which was called ā€˜Team Halo’ where we trained scientists around the world and some doctors on TikTok, and we had TikTok working with us,ā€ she added.

In the same panel, Fleming declared, ā€œWe own the science, and we think that the world should know it, and the platforms themselves also doā€ while bragging about how the UN partnered with Google to manipulate search results, so that only UN-approved messaging would appear at the top.

With this partnership, TikTok continues its role as a propaganda arm of the United Nations, of which the WHO is a part.


Tim Hinchliffe, Editor, The Sociable


Written by thesociable | The Sociable is a technology news publication that picks apart how technology transforms society and vice versa.
Published by HackerNoon on 2024/10/09