the times | Monday August 3 2020 2GM 17
News
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JAMES GLOSSOPTikTok, the video-sharing app, is offer-
ing thousands of pounds of free adver-
tising to Britain’s leading universities.
The company has been touting com-
mercial partnerships to Russell Group
universities, including Cambridge,
offering £5,000 of advertising credits.
Cambridge is one of three universi-
ties in the group to join TikTok recently,
after a private digital meeting in June at
which the app’s benefits were promoted.
One person at the meeting between
TikTok and representatives of the 24
universities said that it had offered each
institution the credits, potentially
providing £120,000 in free advertising.
Last week President Trump an-
nounced plans to ban TikTok in
America. It is owned by a Chinese tech
company and such companies must
hand over data on users if asked by
Beijing. TikTok has previously claimed
that it has become a “political football”
in a spat between China and the West.
The University of Liverpool created
its TikTok account in early July, joining
Glasgow, which has more than 11,
followers. Glasgow set up its profile in
January, with two students dancing in
TikTok offers free adverts
to woo British universities
front of the university’s cloisters to
Chinese New Year by Sales, a popular
song on the app.
Cambridge joined in late June,
obtaining the @cambridgeuniversity
username with the help of TikTok. It
initially expressed interest in taking up
TikTok’s offer. Correspondence seen by
The Times shows that, in exchange,
Cambridge was asked to post at least
two videos a week for ten weeks. The
university said that it had declined the
advertising credits. So far, it has posted
seven videos in little over a month, seen
570,000 times. The university was a
launch partner for #LearnonTikTok,
which also signed up English Heritage.
The June webinar demonstrated how
the app works, highlighting its ability to
promote educational content and help
universities to connect with the young
audiences they need.
Record numbers of students will be
offered places at universities through
clearing this year. According to
unpublished data from the pollsters
YouGov, 27 per cent of those aged 18 to
24 in Britain use TikTok.
TikTok declined to comment on the
offer to universities.
TikTok draws up plan to beat ban, page 33Chris Stokel-Walker, Ben Ellery
Friends of a teenager charged over the
largest hack in Twitter’s history have
told of their shock after he was accused
of helping with the cyberattack from
his mother’s home in Bognor Regis.
Mason John Sheppard, 19, was
charged by American prosecutors on
Friday in connection with the hack last
month that accessed 130 accounts
belonging to some of the world’s best
known people. The accounts of Barack
Obama and Joe Biden sent tweets
urging followers to send them bitcoin,
the virtual currency.
The tweets promised that followers
would get double the value in return.
More than 400 people handed over a
total of £90,000. Other accounts used
included those of Elon Musk, the Tesla
founder, Jeff Bezos, the Amazon
founder and the rapper Kanye West and
his wife, Kim Kardashian.
The US Justice Department said that
Mr Sheppard and two others were
charged with conspiracy to commit
money laundering, wire fraud and the
intentional access of a protected
computer. Officers from the National
Crime Agency and the South East
Regional Organised Crime Unit raided
Mr Sheppard’s mother’s home in
West Sussex last week but he
has not been arrested.
His mother, Lor-
raine, 52, is said to be
shocked by the
charges and a
friend said that
they believed that
Mr Sheppard
must have been
lured unwittingly
into the plot. “I
Teenager accused
of Twitter hack
from family home
didn’t realise it was him,” the friend said.
“He’s beautiful, he’s a lovely boy,
honestly a lovely boy, lovely family.
He’s a good kid. Just a nice boy, I’d say
quiet, a good teenager. You would never
expect it, not with Mason.”
Police stayed at the house for a few
hours and were “obviously doing their
searching and grabbing what they can”.
According to US prosecutors, Mr
Sheppard used aliases in hacker
forums, where he sold access to Twitter
accounts compromised by his co-con-
spirators. He allegedly told buyers that
he could give them access to accounts
for £2,000 to £3,000 and would take a
£200 commission for himself.
Criminal charges filed in the US dis-
trict court for the Northern District of
California say that Mr Sheppard was
the holder of cryptocurrency accounts
where bitcoin worth more than
£30,000 was moved during the scam.
FBI agents found an email address
linked to his online aliases which was
also registered to accounts with crypto-
currency exchanges that provided
records to the authorities, including a
UK driving licence, Mr Sheppard’s
address and a photograph of him.
The email address has been linked by
cybersecurity experts to accounts on
Twitter, AboutMe and Tumblr, all
of which shared a cropped
profile picture of an
unknown person
wearing a Santa hat.
The US author-
ities believe that
they have enough
evidence to prove
Mr Sheppard was
involved but the
friend said that it
was inconceivable,
adding: “If he’s
done this, he hasn’t
done it, I don’t think,
intentionally.”Neil Johnston
Flocking together David Cooper gathers his sheep before shearing at Tardoes Farm near the village of Muirkirk, East AyrshirePolice raided Mason
Sheppard’s family
home in West Sussex
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