Hundreds of refugees in Syria saw TikTok as a way to ask for help to alleviate their difficult situation. But behind these live broadcasts with children and families, the British network revealed a network that takes advantage of associated agencies, intermediaries and the platform itself. In this summary on the Middle East we also address the repression in Iran, the pacts between Israel and Lebanon and, on the other hand, between the Palestinian factions, as well as the political crisis in Iraq.
From Arabic Ahlan wa sahlan (أهلا وسهلا) welcome to ‘Fragments of the Orient’. A summary in which every Saturday we bring you closer to the most outstanding events of the Middle East region and its surrounding countries. In this week’s synthesis (from October 9 to 15)Syria, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, Iraq and Afghanistan.
1) The ‘BBC’ reveals how TikTok makes money from the pleas of Syrian refugees
This week, the British network BBC presented an investigation of several months in which it shows that TikTok and affiliated companies keep up to 70% of the donations received by Syrian refugees in online broadcasts made on the platform.
After observing hundreds of users recording from northern Syria, mostly with children repeating the same phrases, the journalists unraveled an elaborate web that included middlemen in refugee camps and a Chinese agency that TikTok pays to power its live streams. .
According to the investigation, these families sat for several hours – some even reported that they were not allowed to stop to eat, for example – to explain their situation and ask for “virtual gifts.” Although TikTok does not allow sending money, it does allow its creators to receive gifts, which can be redeemed for cash.
Our investigation found children in camps in Syria are begging on TikTok Lives – while TikTok takes 70% of donations given to them. It’s taken months of work with @BBCArabic and BBC Eye to shed light on this… here’s how we found out 🧵 https://t.co/raD60I7Cvt
— Hannah Gelbart (@hannah_gelbart) October 12, 2022
To demonstrate the exploitation behind the structure, the BBC donated $106 in gifts during a broadcast started in Idlib by a Syrian journalist they worked with on the report. At the end of the direct, only 33 dollars were credited to his account, that is, TikTok retained up to 73. If the payments to the intermediary and the exchange house were added to that, only 19 would remain, less than 20% of the initial donation.
BBC asked to interview someone responsible for TikTok (the fastest growing social network in the world and that earned more than 6,200 million dollars), but only received a statement in which the platform promises to make “prompt and rigorous” decisions and strengthen its policies against the “exploitation of begging”.
2) At least 23 children killed in September due to the brutal crackdown on protests in Iran
In the last ten days of September alone, the Iranian regime’s crackdown killed at least 23 children between the ages of 11 and 17, Amnesty International reported. And this is a conservative estimate because the human rights organization estimates that “the real number of children killed by Iranian security forces is higher.”
In its 19-page document, Amnesty accuses Iranian forces of targeting “with absolute impunity” children and young people who “have bravely taken to the streets in search of a future without political oppression and inequality.”
In the count of the deceased verified by the NGO there are 20 boys between 11 and 17 years old, and three girls, two of 16 and one of 17. Almost half of these victims were registered on September 30 in Zahedan, called by the organization as ‘Bloody Friday’, the day on which the brutal repression against the Baluchi Sunni minority left at least 66 dead, being for Amnesty the deadliest day in the new wave of protests.
- Fact: According to Amnesty, between the start of the protests following Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody and October 3, 144 people were killed by Iranian regime forces.
3) Israel and Lebanon defuse tensions with a “historic” maritime agreement
The governments of Israel and Lebanon each congratulated themselves on having met their demands with this US-brokered indirect deal that would end a long-running dispute over maritime boundaries. The pact is called “historic” because these countries have no relations and are technically at war.
From Beirut, President Michel Aoun affirmed that Lebanon “has not yielded even a kilometer to Israel” and denied any “normalization” with the Jewish state. In addition, he stressed that the pact can lay the “foundations” of the “economic recovery” of his country, submerged in a serious financial, political and social crisis.
On the Israeli side, interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid defended that the understanding “distances” a possible war with Hezbollah and guarantees “energy security.” After the approval of its Executive, now the pact will be reviewed for two weeks by Parliament, which does not determine its approval, but may suggest modifications.
A few days before the November 1 elections, the Israeli government is facing political and legal questions about whether an administration in office like Lapid’s has the power to sign a bilateral agreement of this magnitude. Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu has led the criticism by considering the pact a “capitulation” against Hezbollah and has advanced that, if he becomes prime minister again, he will not apply it.
The deal would resolve a dispute over 860 square kilometers of sea encompassing the Karish and Qana gas fields: the former to be exploited by Israel, the latter by Lebanon. But for the understanding to be formalized, both governments must send letters to the United States and the UN, a process that should be completed before October 31, before Aoun’s term expires and before the Israeli elections.
4) After 15 years of division, the ‘Algiers Declaration’ brings Palestinian factions closer together
After a three-day conference in Algeria, the Palestinian factions, led by the nationalist Fatah and the Islamist Hamas, signed the ‘Declaration of Algiers’, which aims to achieve reconciliation after 15 years of quarrels and divisions. A process celebrated by all parties, but which is taken with caution due to the failed experiences of the past.
The central point, and which has made previous rapprochements fail, is the convening of presidential and legislative elections within a year in Gaza (controlled by Hamas), the West Bank (partially governed by Fatah) and East Jerusalem (occupied by Israel).
The document consists of nine points and establishes that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) must be the “sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people”, an apparent call for factions such as Hamas or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad to join the entity.
The unity of the Palestinian forces broke down with the confrontation in 2007 between Fatah and Hamas – branded as terrorist by Israel -, which led to a five-day fratricidal struggle, with around 120 dead and the de facto seizure of power in Gaza by part of the Islamist group.
The motivation of all parties to achieve reconciliation is the “firm conviction” that the current division has weakened the Palestinian cause for the benefit of the Israeli occupation.
5) Al-Sadr calls for a boycott of the new “corrupt” government of Iraq
Iraq begins to leave behind a year of political stagnation with the election of the Kurdish Abdelatif Rashid as president this October 13who in turn appointed Mohamed Shia al Sudani as prime minister, in charge of forming a government after the paralysis following the October 2021 elections.
However, the tensions promise to continue at the hands of the influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose bloc won the elections but who resigned en masse this June due to the blockade of his proposals for the creation of an Executive.
Despite announcing his retirement from politics in August – a decision followed by violent protests by his followers, which caused 35 deaths – Al-Sadr urged his sympathizers and supporters “not to participate in that government formation headed by the current candidate or other old faces or affiliated with the corrupt”, under threat of expulsion for those who disobey this order.
For the cleric, the future executive that Shia must form within the next 30 days “will not respond to the aspirations of the Iraqi people” and “will turn Iraq into a puppet of foreign agendas.” “We recommend that weapons do not become loose hands and that people’s money is not transferred to corrupt pockets and banks,” he said.
Quite a declaration of intent that keeps alive the ghosts of instability in Iraq.
and picture of the week is dedicated to the women and girls of Afghanistan, because this October 13 Thousands took university entrance exams, some fearing possible attacks in the wake of the attack two weeks ago in a study hall that took the lives of 53 young people.
Defying the Taliban’s restrictions on women’s education (which this week added the ban on several subjects for female students in universities), fears for their safety and the high cost of studies, these young women opted to take the tests in the hope that, despite everything, the education they deserve will give them a more promising future.
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