It was only a matter of time. From today, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian‘s daily coronavirus press conferences at 11am will be livestreamed on TikTok.
It’s an interesting decision after a discredited “comedian” had been spoiling the daily case numbers last month, and it’s bound to please all the Gladys stans who have found a home on the app. On a more serious note, it’s hoped the livestream will help communicate vital info to more people.
“In addition to the daily TV broadcast, the TikTok livestream will support the dissemination of accurate, timely and important public health messages to wider audiences and raise awareness amongst TikTok’s diverse community,” TikTok’s global public policy director for Australia and New Zealand, Brent Thomas, said in a statement.
“With the highly transmissible COVID-19 Delta strain circulating in NSW and the steep increase in COVID-19 case numbers, it’s more important now than ever to ensure our community stays safe and helps stop the spread of COVID-19.”
The livestreams will be available on the @NSWHealth account, which previously hosted a Q&A session with the state’s Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant last month.
It’s not the first Aussie political livestream, either, after @minorfauna hosted a livestreamed chat with Australia’s first female PM Julia Gillard back in March.
“At TikTok, we welcome the opportunity to support governments and health bodies around Australia in this vital work and to help spread the message,” Thomas added.
“Globally we’ve been partnering with NGOs and experts to help fight COVID-19, and it’s great to be collaborating with local authorities who recognise the role we can help play in these efforts.
“Making sure people are safe, connected and have access to credible information on COVID-19 will continue to be a focus for TikTok as the pandemic evolves.”
It’ll be interesting to see if the commenters on the TikTok livestream will try to guess Berejiklian’s jacket colour like on Facebook, or if a new commenting trend will emerge out of all the Sydney lockdown discourse that’s been happening on the app lately.
We’ll just have to wait and see what happens at 11am today.
