2023 Fundraising: Atiku, Tinubu, Obi In fresh crises
OpenLife Nigeria reports that as preparations for 2023 general election campaigns gain momentum with candidates deploying technology to drive political campaign funding, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP may face fresh challenges in raising funds through online channels as TikTok has banned political accounts from fundraising.
According to information, TikTok, the social media app owned by ByteDance Ltd., is banning fundraising and all other moneymaking opportunities for politicians and government accounts on the platform.
The short-video network already prohibits political ads, including any paid-for posts by influencers.
The new policies will additionally bar requests for donations, e-commerce capabilities and accepting gifts from users.
Political accounts will automatically be ineligible for making money through TikTok’s Creator Fund, according to a statement from the company’s president of global business solutions, Blake Chandlee.
Though the move is in anticipation of the US midterm elections, which will provide a fresh test for social media companies and their ability to maintain a neutral stance as debates — and potentially coordinated influence campaigns — rage on their services, it is, nonetheless, going to affect Nigerian 2023 presidential candidates in view of the heavy reliance on Tik Tok and other social media channels to raise funds for the election.
“By prohibiting campaign fundraising and limiting access to our monetization features and verifying accounts, we’re aiming to strike a balance between enabling people to discuss the issues that are relevant to their lives while also protecting the creative, entertaining platform that our community wants,” Chandlee said in the statement.
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