Twitter is working with the BBC to live-stream British election specials

By Lulu Chang Published May 30, 2017

Twitter is no stranger to election coverage, having served as a crucial platform during the 2016 U.S. presidential race for both the news media and candidates alike. Now, it’s taking that coverage overseas. Following last year’s partnership with Bloomberg to live-stream the American presidential debates, Twitter is now working alongside the BBC for its latest live-streaming collaboration. The partnership will give users access to live video and breaking news straight from the BBC’s election coverage, and marks the first time Twitter has partnered with the British broadcaster on streaming video.

According to an announcement from the BBC made over the weekend, “the BBC will live-stream five election specials on Twitter bringing these key election moments to audiences on the platform.” These specials include the BBC Election Debate on May 31, the two Question Time Leaders Specials on June 2 and June 4, the Newsbeat Youth Debate on June 6, and finally, the Election Night Results Special on June 8.

Promising an “interactive experience,” Twitter users will be privy to a real-time curated timeline of tweets that allow followers to see commentary as it happens from BBC experts and BBC Reality Check. They’ll simply need to follow bbcelection.twitter.com or the hashtags #bbcdebate, #bbcqt, and #bbcelection.

“It is in the public interest for BBC audiences to hear from those seeking election and the BBC’s TV specials are moments when the public focus on the campaign and get to hear politicians answering their questions,” the media company noted.

Outside of political coverage, Twitter has also struck partnerships with a number of other content creators, with hopes of making live video available through the platform at all times of the day. Indeed, the social media company has deals with the WNBA, BuzzFeed, Viacom, the NFL, MLB, PGA tour, Dick Clark Productions, and Live Nation, just to name a few.

Former Contributor

Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…

Topics

Social Media

Discord’s next big feature could put your conversations on Google Search

The privacy issue is obvious, so here's how to stop it

Discord on PC Featured

Discord is trying to push more visibility on the internet for some of its biggest communities, and there's a good chance your messages could end up in a Google Search. The platform is preparing to make conversations from certain public servers searchable on the web, so there's a privacy setting you might want to check before the rollout begins.

According to Discord's official announcement, the changes will roll out in two stages. Starting November 16, qualifying servers will have public web pages featuring automated summaries of conversations. By mid-December, individual messages from eligible public channels could also appear word-for-word in Google and other search engines.

Social Media

X has a creepy new way to make you promote your posts, and nobody asked for it

A mysterious pointing hand is haunting X drafts, and users are not amused.

You just opened X and started typing your thoughts. Imagine the jump scare when a hand suddenly pops up on your screen, pointing at the promote button. It doesn’t say a word and simply points. For a growing number of X users, this isn’t a made-up scenario but something they have been seeing since yesterday, and very few of them are amused.

Most of us have learned to tune out the usual in-app upsells, whether it’s a glowing upgrade banner or a pop-up about a premium plan. A floating hand hovering over your draft is much harder to ignore, and that’s probably the whole point.

Computing

Dictionary.com’s word of the year is one that you’re tired of seeing everywhere on the internet

From looksmaxxing to tokenmaxxing, the internet has found endless ways to max out everyday life, and now the trend has earned Dictionary.com's top linguistic honor.

Dictionary.com open on iPhone

Scroll through any app for five minutes, and you’ll find someone maxxing something. Their skin, their sleep, their protein intake, even their Friday night on the couch. That little suffix has been everywhere this year, and now it has a trophy to show for it. In a recent announcement, Dictionary.com named maxxing its 2026 Word of the Year.

What are people actually doing when they’re maxxing?