White House relies on Justin.tv to stream Biden's speech

In the absence of the official White House TV camera crew, Vice President Joe Biden's speech from Tel Aviv University this week will be live streamed on an unusual website: the original "lifecasting" website Justin.tv.

Founded in 2007 by Justin Kan, Justin.tv began as a project where Kan streamed his entire life online for viewers to watch, 24 hours a day, seven days
a week. The concept attracted a lot of attention, even giving rise to the term lifecasting.

But Justin.tv is not without controversy: In 2008, a 19-year-old committed suicide by overdose live on Justin.tv in front of a room full of viewers, prompting his family to suggest that the voyeuristic nature of the site was partly to blame.

Since its founding, Justin.tv has opened up into a hosting platform, which today harbors more than 30,000 users. One of these is the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, which will coordinate the live stream of Biden's Thursday speech.

The White House told ITK that it can be difficult to stream video onto the whitehouse.gov website from a non-White House camera feed, especially from the Middle East, so Justin.tv is filling in. The speech will be posted on the White House website.