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EU Referendum Facebook Media

David Cameron to give first Facebook Live interview during BuzzFeed EU debate

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By Rebecca Stewart, Trends Editor

June 2, 2016 | 3 min read

BuzzFeed will play host to David Cameron’s first interview conducted via Facebook Live, as it continues to make moves into real-time video on the platform.

David Cameron Buzzfeed EU debate

The announcement marks the first time the prime minister and other voices from both sides of the EU referendum have given interviews on the livestreaming service.

Cameron has so far only agreed to appear in three other televised EU Q&As. He will feature in an interview with Sky, a one-off themed Question Time on BBC and another ITV special in which Nigel Farage will take questions separately.

It was first reported last month that the UK government had appealed to the likes of BuzzFeed and Google to help it engage young voters ahead of the EU vote. BuzzFeed has said its ‘town hall’-style event will give audience members a chance to pose questions to politicians in a series of separate Q&A sessions across the day.

Chaired by political news editor Jim Waterson and senior political correspondent Emily Ashton, the event will sit at the heart of BuzzFeed’s special EU-focused coverage and will be streamed live to Facebook.

Some companies, like McDonald’s, GoPro and ITV have been toying with Facebook Live over the past few months. And while the social network’s real-time offering may still be intimidating for brands and publishers, it’s becoming more of everyday occurrence for users to see videos from big names pop up on their newsfeed.

BuzzFeed has been particularly active on the service since its launch, taking the title for the second-most viewed Facebook Live video thanks to a video of an exploding watermelon, which has clocked up 10m views to date. It also air a live interview with Obama on Facebook, which had to be moved to YouTube after the link crashed.

Commenting on BuzzFeed's project, Facebook's government and politics specialist Theo Lomas said: “As we enter the final three weeks of the campaign, referendum discussion on Facebook is really heating up.

“Millions of people have joined the debate on Facebook to discuss the issues they care about and the likely repercussions of a Yes or No vote.

“We hope that the campaign representatives will use the Live event next Friday to help answer some of these questions and help undecided voters across the country reach a decision," he added.

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