A TikTok video went viral over the weekend as viewers claimed it glamorized cultural appropriation. The video shows an Asian hairstylist with braids using various techniques to imitate type 4 hair on her client while “Dead Man Walking” by S3nsi Molly plays in the back. The TikTok is making the rounds on Twitter and Instagram, and many are saying social media is further normalizing cultural appropriation.
For every viewer who is appalled by the appropriation, there is seemingly another who wants to copy that look. A quick YouTube search will give results showing how to use Bantu knots and perm techniques to curl straight hair. Tutorials show how to use moisturizing products typically used by Black women and men to protect their hair, to achieve the perfect faux-fro.
Cultural appropriation is when certain aspects of someone’s culture are mocked and used against people of that culture, but later mimicked by others, typically white people, and lauded as cool with no respect for the origins of that trend. While type 4 hair has historically been marginalized and called “bad hair” and Black women and men have been punished for wearing their natural hair, white women like Kim Kardashian attribute cornrows to Bo Derek and are celebrated. That’s appropriation.
Social media may be worsening cultural appropriation. With social media sites like Instagram and YouTube, white people can copy culturally significant styles without learning about that style’s history or cultural origin. When celebrities appropriate looks, their influence is enormous and it can completely erase cultural significance.
This may be why cultural appropriation is especially prevalent at events like music festivals where your look is a large part of the fun. Young, impressionable people spend countless hours scrolling Instagram for festival inspiration and seeing others appropriate looks makes it seem harmless. It’s “just an outfit.”
TikTok as a platform has been called out for normalizing appropriation. Scroll through the “for you” page and you’ll likely see dozens of white teenagers appropriating Black styles and using “blaccents” for likes. Social media in many cases normalizes appropriation and makes it harder for teens to realize when they are being disrespectful.
i was fascinated with how much of tiktok is underpinned by black culture thematically so i scrolled and recorded everything i saw for 20mins and condensed it pic.twitter.com/t9Rd8UplSh
But it’s still not black and white. Journalist Connie Wang recently investigated Japanese women imitating East L.A. “chola” culture for Refinery29 to determine whether it was cultural appropriation or appreciation. She found that while it may be easy to say it’s appropriation, she felt the respect for chola culture made it more appreciative.
Cultural appropriation can be more nuanced than it seems. While certain instances of cultural appropriation can be easily called out, normalizing appropriation on social media certainly blurs the line and makes it harder to discern appropriation from appreciation.
As for the TikTok video of the Korean salon appropriating Black hairstyles, well, the shock and outrage it’s stirred among Black users speaks for itself.
Three boys filmed themselves kayaking down some stairs, attempting to swing in their kayak, and kayaking down a slide. The energy of this TikTok is, in one word, chaotic. The poster’s handle is @juulgamer69. There is a flute in the back squeakily playing “My Heart Will Go On.” We don’t know where the kayak came from, or how long it will last.
The TikTok, titled “kayak gang’ has 1.2 million likes and counting and has been shared 117,000 thousand times. The account seems to be run by the three boys in the video, but they appear to be new to TikTok, with only three other videos on their page.
We have yet to see copycat videos, perhaps because of the difficulties securing a kayak and getting it to a park.
Maybe the boys are trying to see how fast they can fly down the stairs. Maybe they’re practicing for when climate change floods the coasts. Who knows. But viewers are eagerly waiting to see if this trend catches on.
Standardized testing season is upon us, and with that comes memes. Teens are flooding Twitter and TikTok with reactions to the PSATs this weekend, but these memes could be causing kids trouble. Recently, students who discuss standardized tests on any social media platform have started seeing their scores invalidated.
PSAT memes
It is common for students to vent on social media after stressful exams. Students post about general test anxiety, particularly funny or random exam questions, and of course about getting in trouble with the College Board after posting their memes. While some students block the College Board on social media or post on finsta accounts, others take their chances and are even bold enough to tag their memes #psat or #psatmemes.
the only reason i have will to live today is because after the test i KNOW there will be PSAT memes and i’m ready for it pic.twitter.com/AZMLWIUaAl
Over the past few years, College Board has started to crack down on students discussing test material online. According to College Board’s website, “if you post to any form of social media during the exam or refer to unreleased exam content at any time after the exam, your score will be canceled, no retest will be permitted, and you may be banned from future testing.” College Board does note though that if free-response content is posted on its website, students may discuss their answers after 48 hours.
While concern over cheating via social media is valid, it is unlikely that memes posted after exams are doing any harm. College Board distributes multiple copies of tests and ensures that by the time East Coast students are finishing their exams, West Coast students have already begun and are offline.
While some people agree with College Board’s decision to invalidate scores of students who post about exams online, others feel this is too harsh a punishment, and even question why we place so much emphasis on a test that is so easily invalidated.
TikTok is often viewed as a hyperchaotic incubator for inexplicable memes, but some people have used the platform’s framework to call out predatory behavior. Now a subgenre has emerged to call out shitty exes and abusive behavior.
A couple recent Twitterthreads highlight some examples of this emerging trend of girls and women dancing to voicemails of their shitty exes. TikTok user @trapmoneybella posted a video titled “Day 1 of dancing to voicemails from my cheating ex boyfriend,” and then followed it up with another dance.
User @tenleyearles also used this approach, posting audio of her ex “yelling at me for wearing leggings to school.”
In a follow-up video, she offers some advice to girls on catching “red flags.” She explains she had to get a restraining order against her ex, and that during their relationship he become more controlling, going through her phone and sending people to surveil her at the school she attended.
Other users have been inspired by this trend, posting their voicemails from exes.
The Twitter threads also highlighted other instances of women subtly calling out sexist behavior, like this duet with a guy who thinks he’s got his pick-up technique all figured out.
The “Me dancing to…” meme isn’t new; it’s been used to call out racism and bad takes, but this iteration has expanded to include not just voicemails, but texts. And there are a few instances of dancing to voicemails of shitty ex-best friends, too.
While there are some jokes in the comments of these videos, there is also of solidarity and catharsis; women are seeing behavior they thought was normal or had to be tolerated and calling it out in their own lives, or offering support to others.
Ladies, if he calls you “bro,” you know where to go.
“Natural selection,” one Twitter user joked, before clarifying that the motion is actually a gang sign used by the Bloods gang and “many have died behind this.”
“if u do that tiktokslatt thing in certain areas in public UR GONNA GET SHOT STOP IT,” another cautioned.
And it’s not just the teens doing it. The challenge seemed to make its way into a school where faculty members were seen doing it.
For everyone asking, what they’re doing is a gang sign. SLATT originally came from NY (Vado) and bloods used it. Young Thug popularized it in ATL with YSL. My caption is jokes but don’t do this. Many have died behind this.
The videos are being captioned and called slatt and/or slime. Young Thug popularized the terms through his music, and the two are heavily associated with him. So, hopefully, TikTokkers just think they are doing some Young Thug challenge.
And, while many argue the sign is affiliated with the Bloods gang, the Daily Dot could not find any explicit evidence of such.
“I swear if I see one more 90 pound white girl on TikTok throwing gang signs imma stick a toothpick under my toenail and kick a wall,” one person tweeted.
I swear if I see one more 90 pound white girl on TikTok throwing gang signs imma stick a toothpick under my toenail and kick a wall
the slatt/slime trend is really crazy because thats a gang sign. that is slang used by real life killers. its not some cute text decoration or funny tiktok trend you can die over that shit. real life.
lit rally the “trend” on tiktok of yt kids throwing up blood gang signs is yet another example of white people knowing their privilege and being brazen enough to do something for fun that ordinarily could possibly get a black person killed or incarcerated
TikTok is a hotbed of memes, but a recent phone prank had some pizza chain employees particularly fired up.
TikTok user @machereford uploaded a 35-second clip that shows one phone placing calling Pizza Hut and another phone calling Papa John’s. The employees at the respective chains answered around the same time with their usual greetings. But confusion ensued after it became clear that another pizza chain was on the other line.
“Uh, you called Pizza Hut on 15th Street. This is Jim how may I help you,” the Pizza Hut employee says.
“Sir, this is Papa John’s,” the Papa John’s employee replies.
The video has gained 2.1 million likes on TikTok and 85,000 retweets on Twitter, where it was shared by user @iAmYart.
The Papa John’s employee remained businesslike, but the Pizza Hut employee couldn’t mask his bewilderment. This resulted in one humourous exchange where the employees swapped pizza specials.
“Would you like to hear our specialties tonight? We’ve got an $8.99 pepperoni large pizza,” the Papa John’s employee says.
“Um… we have a $7.99 if you’d like to place an order for that,” the Pizza Hut employee replies, apparently coming out on top.
“[Pizza Hut] was playing 4D chess while Papa John’s was playing checkers,” Twitter user @Darrak commented.
Pizza Hut somehow managed to both be confused and 1-Up the Papa John's with a one dollar cheaper large pepperoni pizza. He was playing 4D chess while Papa John's was playing checkers.
Through Storyful–an agency that operates out of the WSJ parent company News Corp. and monitors social media–it identified that the videos contained violent Jihadist imagery, such as carrying corpses into the street. The Verge reports that the videos in question were intended to recruit new members.
A TikTok representative sent the Daily Dot the following statement via email:
“Content promoting terrorist organizations has absolutely no place on TikTok. We permanently ban any such accounts and associated devices as soon as identified, and we continuously develop ever-stronger controls to proactively detect suspicious activity. This is an industry-wide challenge complicated by bad actors who actively seek to circumvent protective measures, but we have a team dedicated to aggressively protecting against malicious behavior on TikTok.”
TikTok has made efforts to keep the platform light-hearted in the past. It notoriously avoids confronting its young user base with political content, the Verge also reports. Forbes notes that while other social media platforms have come under fire for their political information policies, TikTok removes itself from the problem and bans political ads entirely.
The New York Post estimates that the app’s userbase is around 30% minors, making its audience particularly vulnerable to ISIS propaganda.
TikTok released a set of videos Wednesday that highlight the app’s commitment to safety and “positivity.” The video series, titled “You’re In Control,” gives users tips to stay safe online.
“TikTok is committed to building a positive environment where creativity radiates and everyone feels safe,” Kudzi Chikumbu, TikTok’s director of creator community, said in a press release. “Our in-app controls are designed to keep TikTok welcoming for everyone and we love showcasing these creators’ enthusiasm to help keep our community safe.”
“You’re In Control” shows users how to keep information private on TikTok, as well as how to block certain users from interacting with your profile. TikTok also urged users to be “thoughtful” about what they put in their profiles and to “keep TikTok positive” by reporting hate speech.
TikTok partnered with popular creators for the “You’re In Control” campaign. This approach to safety does seem to stand out from other platforms like Facebook or Twitter, where safety concerns took longer to address.
But there is a concern that these safety features are a guise to make censorship easier. TikTok is based in Beijing and has come under fire before for censoring topics that it may not want Chinese users to see, like protests in Hong Kong. TikTok has not yet appeared to censor political issues in the U.S. However, earlier this month Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) requested the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States investigate Tik Tok over censorship concerns.
Whataburger is pretty influential in Texas: It’s gotten late-night endorsements from political figures and shifted how police approach evidence collection. And sometimes, people eat there.
The Texas burger chain got a Whatabump this week after teen Ethan Mueller was filmed consuming a 10-patty burger in Allen, Texas. In the now-viral TikTok, a receipt, dated Oct. 16, shows the meat tally and acquaintance Blake Reynolds captured the journey, which includes masterful closeups of onlookers, cheers from staff, and a frenzied conclusion.
Reynolds told USA Today that they were trying to “beat a record,” though a spokesperson did not confirm that they had. Still, it’s a feat of modern filmmaking: A hero’s journey through regional consumerism, edited to achieve maximum tension. It was made to be memed.
Senators called for a national security investigation into short-form video app TikTok on Wednesday.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) penned a letter to Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, addressing what they say is a threat to national security. TikTok’s parent company ByteDance operates out of Bejing, China. The senators say there should be an investigation into whether the Chinese government has access to the data of U.S. citizens who use TikTok. Additionally, the letter voices concerns about the censorship of content.
“TikTok reportedly censors materials deemed politically sensitive to the Chinese Communist Party, including content related to the recent Hong Kong protests, as well as references to Tiananmen Square, Tibetan and Taiwanese independence, and the treatment of Uighurs,” the letter reads. “The platform is also a potential target of foreign influence campaigns like those carried out during the 2016 election on U.S.-based social media platforms.”
TikTok has been accused of censoring the pro-democracy Hong Kong protests and the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Searches for those subjects on TikTok yield hardly any results, which is eyebrow-raising considering searches on other platforms yield a plethora of results, especially in relation to the tech- and social media-fueled Hong Kong protests. TikTok has also been accused of censoring LGBTQ content.
In addition to potential election-meddling, the senators are concerned that TikTok will not protect its users’ data from the Chinese government.
“Without an independent judiciary to review requests made by the Chinese government for data or other actions, there is no legal mechanism for Chinese companies to appeal if they disagree with a request,” the senators wrote.
TikTok responded to the accusations in a statement, clarifying its data privacy policies.
“We store all TikTok U.S. user data in the United States, with backup redundancy in Singapore,” TikTok said in a statement. “Our data centers are located entirely outside of China, and none of our data is subject to Chinese law.”
Additionally, the platform said it has never been asked by the Chinese government to censor content. But, Schumer and Cotton have a bipartisan belief that China could potentially impact future elections through TikTok.
“TikTok is a potential counterintelligence threat we cannot ignore,” the senators wrote.
There is little Baby Boomers seem to love more than dunking on millennials. Millennials have killed everything, from department stores to Applebee’s and spend more time eating avocados than getting outrageous home loans we will never be able to afford. We are a generation ruined by participation trophies and caring about things like the environment and people’s feelings–and boomers love making sure we know what sensitive little snowflakes we are because of it.
While we all may be too busy working multiple jobs to afford skyrocketing rent prices (because somebody killed the economy) to put too much effort into comebacks, it turns out very little effort is needed in that department.
Millennials and Gen Zers have made a casual hobby of responding to things the older folks say with nothing more than “OK boomer”–and it’s driving them absolutely insane.
boomers: people on this app are way too sensitive stop being SNOWFLAKES
Can you believe that trump supporters are angry at millenials using 'ok boomer' to make fun of them but theyre talking about how the 'stupid snowflake millenials' are too sensitive to take a joke? Listen Henry, jokes need a set-up and punch line. 'Fuck Gay People' aint a joke
While “OK boomer” has been around for a minute, it’s picked up steam recently thanks to TikTok. Teens are posting videos mocking older people who put down the younger generations for idiotic reasons. And most of the videos are even set to various remixes of the song “Ok Boomer” by Jedwill and Peter Kuli, which largely just repeats the phrase “OK boomer” on a very catchy and aggressive loop.
tiktok is ruining my life my brother asked why my parents won’t let me bleach my hair and my dad went “it’s just not something you should do” and i went “ok boomer” hES LITERALLY NOT EVEN A BOOMER
The best kind of comeback is often simple and something that cannot be argued with, and refusing to engage boomers with anything more than “OK boomers” seems to be working perfectly. It also has the added bonus of being confusing and easily merchandised.
Ashnikko’s “Stupid” has become an anthem on TikTok, where teens are empowering themselves and others in inventive new ways. It’s appeared in more than 2 million TikToks and its popularity on the platform has also pushed the song up Spotifycharts.
Now we can add Miley Cyrus and Cody Simpson to the list of viral enablers. Cyrus, who joined TikTok last month, posted a clip of her and new boyfriend Simpson dancing to the song. The clip features the line, “Stupid boy think that I need him/I go cold like changing seasons.”
The clip also welcomes Simpson to TikTok, though the two had previously collaborated on a cover of Kylie Jenner’s capitalist lullaby “Rise and Shine.”
The “Stupid” trend typically employs a two-person approach, though people have gotten creative.
In a video from Sept. 22, Ashnikko commented on her “weird little moment on tiktok” and credited the Instagram account @gluecosebaby with initially posting the audio to TikTok.
Brittany Tomlinson altered the very fabric of the reaction meme in August when she tried kombucha for the first time, earning her the names “kombucha girl” and also “kombucha woman.” She’s recreated the meme for people IRL, but she’s more than just that TikTok.
Tomlinson shows her range and reach in a more recent TikTok, where she explains her “ma” is cooking dinner for her “boys,” then proceeds to roll call the boys and advertise the night’s special: noodle weenie dogs.
What are noodle weenie dogs? Well, it’s apparently something that mutated from Tomlinson’s TikTok; people have made tutorials for this monstrosity, which is essentially hot dog bits stabbed through with uncooked spaghetti.
It’s been animated, too.
And there are plenty of creative riffs on the meme.
Has this ever happened to you? You’re taking a leisurely soak in the tub and then some busty broad interrupts bath time to berate you for not having a lifeguard at your beach, and you’re like, lady, “I’m not at the beach, this is a bathtub,” plus it’s only two feet of water anyway? But then she insists and makes you get out of the water over a shark sighting, but it’s OK because you end up having sex with her?
Well, probably not, and that’s OK! Although it was the plot of a Baywatch porn parody starring adult film actress Lisa Ann. Given the conceivable challenges of shooting an adult film on an actual beach (lack of privacy, getting arrested, sand in … places), the film was instead set in a bathroom. Because as long as holes are being penetrated, what does it even matter?
Given the inherent hilarity of the “this is a bathtub” dialogue, however, the (safe for work) clip quickly began being circulated on Tumblr, and eventually, the YouTube channel The Party uploaded the full scene of dialogue, which has since been viewed over 1.1 million times in recent years.
The clip has been widely compared to the viral James Deen “Lemon Stealing Whores” clip in terms of complete absurdity, in which a couple waxes poetic about their prized lemon tree, as a woman wearing a swimsuit steals the lemons from right behind their backs.
But then, earlier this year the “this is a bathtub” meme took on a whole new life when it began to be circulated on TikTok, as users began uploading dubbed versions of themselves acting out the scene.
KnowYourMeme writes that the first known instance was on Feb. 17, when TikTok user @dana_prenger uploaded the following version that has since received over 481,600 likes and 6,200 shares over the course of eight months.
Then on May 25, user @sarahgraysun uploaded a similar lip dub clip that received over 665,500 likes and 10,400 shares in five months.
From there, others began sharing their own versions and it has since become a whole entire thing, as you can see from a handful of “this is a bathtub” copycats, below:
This example was uploaded on Halloween:
Sadly, we never did find out what became of the (surely, soon to be happy) “I’m not at the beach, this is a bathtub” couple. But we have a distinct feeling they both ended up more dirty than clean.
TikTok wants to be the destination for mobile videos, and clearly it’s having some success. Launched in 2017, the short-form video app, available for both iOS and Android, has since been downloaded over 800 million times. But maybe you’ve had enough: If you’ve reached your fill of TikTok, perhaps it’s time to delete the app and move on. Here’s a simple guide walking you through how to delete your TikTok account — forever.
How to delete your TikTok account
Head to your account
The first step in how to delete your TikTok account is booting up the app and heading to your profile page by tapping on the small person-shaped icon at the bottom right of your device’s display.
Next, you need to hit up the “Settings” option; this is the three small dots at the top right of your screen.
Once you’re into your Settings tab, tap on the “Manage my account” menu option.
From here, look to the bottom of your screen for the “Delete account” text and tap on it. You’ll now be prompted to enter your TikTok password for security reasons.
Once you’ve entered the correct password, the TikTok app will take you through to a warning page, explaining what deleting your account means.
What deleting your TikTok account means
For starters, you won’t be able to log in anymore and you will no longer have access to any videos you created. However, be aware that your chat messages may still be visible to other users.
It’s also worth noting that TikTok does not issue refunds on any items you’ve purchased.
When you’ve absorbed the warning, and if you still want to delete your account, simply click the red “Delete Account” bar and you’re done.
Once you’ve hit that fateful button, your TikTok account will be deactivated for 30 days and will no longer be visible to the public. After 30 days, your account will be permanently deleted. That’s it — now you know how to delete your TikTok account.
The distaste that Millennials and Generation Z have for Baby Boomers is palatable. After all, this is the generation that destroyed the economy, is actively destroying the planet, and largely seems to write off anyone who disagrees with them as “lazy” or “snowflakes.” And now that distaste has manifested itself into a wholly absurd meme—nay, movement—on TikTok. Everyone, meet Arson Frog.
The origin of Arson Frog
The whole thing started in late October when TikTok user @tinymeatgang69699 uploaded a clip featuring someone laughing uproariously at a selection of cheesy novelty decorative signs in a home goods store. “Thank goodness I don’t have to hunt for my own food,” guffawed the first sign. “I don’t even know where tacos live.”
The underlying joke, of course, is that this is exactly the type of humor that is enjoyed by boomers. As the video proceeded to go viral, many commented as such. One user, however, pointed out the inherent hypocrisy at making boomers the butt of the joke.
“I mean to be fair these are actually jokes,” wrote @matherfukr. “Half of Gen Z would laugh if someone took a picture of a frog, colored it blue and wrote arson under it.”
The comment soon received over 5,000 favorites, and it didn’t take long for this so-called Arson Frog to become a reality.
The spread on TikTok
A few days later, TikTok user @heyitssneha uploaded a video of her own. “So there’s this video, right? OK great, funny content, making fun of boomers,” she said in the clip.
“This comment was defending the boomers, saying how Gen Z’s humor is awful, how we would just laugh at like an awfully edited picture of a frog, right? So I did god’s work, and I made this image at 2:30 in the morning and I can’t stop laughing at it.”
“OK sorry about the laugh but can everybody please just make this their profile picture for no reason?” she continued. “Honestly, I just want to confuse a bunch of people.”
And what can we say, Neha’s fellow Gen Z’ers were only too happy to oblige. As KnowYourMeme points out, a number of comments on the video itself quickly adopted Arson Frog as their usernames and avatars.
The phenomenon even led to others being inspired to create their own Arson Frog fan art, as you can see in a couple of additional TikTok videos, below.
Though the meme has been (mostly) contained to TikTok, on Oct. 29 comedy producer Reed Kavner tweeted the TikTok video, which has since been viewed nearly 20,000 times.
“While we’re having fun with ‘OK boomer,’ here’s an adjacent phenomenon,” Kavner wrote, referencing that other boomer-dunking meme. “Hundreds (thousands? MILLIONS?) of TikTokers have changed their profile pic to a photo of a frog that says “arson” because of this video.”
While we’re having fun with "ok boomer" (shout out @TaylorLorenz) today, here's an adjacent phenomenon: Hundreds (thousands? MILLIONS?) of TikTokers have changed their profile pic to a photo of a frog that says "arson" because of this video pic.twitter.com/7IkAjlozaI
U.S. lawmakers are increasing their scrutiny of Bytedance, the Beijing-based developer of the hit social app TikTok. According to an exclusive Reuters report published late last week, the company is subject to a national security review over its 2017 $1 billion acquisition of Musical.ly.
Musical.ly was an app that, for a brief time, enjoyed a summer of popularity. Bytedance, which was already an established player in the Chinese social media market, acquired the company in the hopes that it’d provide an inroad into the U.S. social market. That gamble paid off, but it came at a cost.
Already, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has begun an investigation into the deal. CIFUS primarily looks at acquisitions to determine any national security risks. As Bytedance failed to clear the 2017 Musical.ly acquisition, there’s scope for CIFUS to conduct a post-mortem, although it remains unclear what actions the body could take. TikTok officially absorbed Musical.ly in 2018.
As it stands, U.S. lawmakers have two concerns: Firstly, how ByteDance will handle the flood of data it’s collecting on American consumers. Compounding this worry is the fact that 60 percent of TikTok’s users are between the ages of 16 and 24, according to a company statement released towards the end of last year.
Secondly, CFIUS is concerned about censorship on the platform. The Chinese internet is known for its endemic censorship, with foreign news outlets routinely banned, as well as content pertaining to subjects like the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and the Falun Gong religious movement. Lawmakers fear that thanks to the popularity of TikTok, the Chinese government would be able to export that censorship to the West.
Finally, American lawmakers are concerned that TikTok could be used as a platform to shift public sentiment within the U.S., with foreign actors using the site as a springboard for a public influence campaign similar to that witnessed in 2016.
In October, U.S. senators Chuck Schumer and Tom Cotton released a bipartisan statement asking Joseph Macguire, acting director of national intelligence, to conduct an investigation into the app.
Schumer has since issued a statement welcoming the CFIUS investigation into ByteDance, hailing it as a “validation of our concern that apps like TikTok…may pose serious risks to millions of Americans and deserve greater scrutiny.”
Reuters states that ByteDance is currently in talks with CFIUS to see how it can continue to operate without being forced to divest the Musical.ly assets it acquired. Although the app was retired, the purchase gave TikTok an infusion of new users, as well as a treasure chest of intellectual property.
Data shared with the Daily Dot by app marketplace analytics firm Apptopia pays testament to the staggering popularity of TikTok. Last month, total U.S. downloads across the Android and iOS app stores reached 6.12 million. This is nearly double April 2019’s figures and represents a significant chunk of TikTok’s 61 million global downloads. It’s also more than triple the number of U.S. downloads of Twitter’s mobile app during the same time period.
TikTok is skyrocketing in popularity—and, consequently, some savvy users are becoming TikTok famous.
In late 2017, the video-sharing app absorbed Musical.ly, which replaced Vine. Since its debut, TikTok has become intensely popular, with a whopping 1 billion global downloads as of February 2019. As the app reaches more people, TikTok influencers who spend their time creating content are seeing their audiences expand.
However, first-time users foraying into the mega-popular app may find it difficult to determine which accounts are worth following. The content from people who are TikTok famous comes in all shapes and sizes. Favorite TikTokers change from person to person, but a few shining stars are popular across the spectrum.
In no particular order, here are 25 famous TikTok accounts that you should already be following.
25 TikTok famous accounts worth following
Their content varies greatly, but all of these popular TikTok creators love to flaunt their unique talents. Plenty of them produce videos in the classic TikTok style—lip syncing to a popular track—but their libraries don’t end there. From funny videos to advice, music, and more, these creators are changing the way young people view entertainment and are becoming TikTok famous as a result.
1) Loren Gray
With an impressive 34.8 million followers, Loren Gray’s TikTok account is the one to beat. At only 17 years old, Gray has acquired a massive social media following, which stretches past TikTok to Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. She even earned nominations from the Teen Choice Awards and People’s Choice Awards for her social media presence.
Gray initially entered the spotlight on Musical.ly, and she carried that energy over to TikTok. Many of her uploads are simple, sweet lip-syncing videos, when they aren’t brief comedic bits. Gray’s library is hundreds deep, so newcomers won’t run out of content anytime soon.
2) Zach King
Zach King started on Vine, ensuring he had plenty of comedic experience by the time he moved to TikTok. Boasting an impressive 25.8 million followers, King creates primarily comedic and illusion-based content. TikTok gives the 29-year-old the opportunity to flaunt his impressive magic skills, which helps boost his follower count.
King calls his particular brand of entertainment “digital sleight of hand,” an apt description of his content. His are some of the best-produced videos on TikTok, displaying his skill as an editor as well as an entertainer.
3) BabyAriel
Ariel Martin was the first individual to amass 20 million followers on Musical.ly, before using her skills to become TikTok famous. At only 18, Martin has racked up just under 30 million TikTok followers. Time magazine named her one of the most influential people on the internet, and Forbes labelled her one of 2017’s top entertainment influencers.
Martin has used her notoriety to build an anti-bullying campaign called the #ArielMovement. A number of publishers, including People magazine, recognized the campaign.
4) Jacob Sartorius
At only 16, Jacob Sartorius is one of the youngest of the famous TikTok creators on this list. TikTok is an app for young people, so it makes sense that Sartorius’ collection is popular. 21.2 million followers enjoy his collection of videos, which are primarily classic TikTok lip-syncing clips and IRL moments.
Thanks to his success on Musical.ly, Sartorius was able to launch a career in music. In addition, his brief relationship with Stranger Things‘ Millie Bobby Brown helped bring him into the spotlight. However, many of his fans come for the charming videos and musical talent.
5) Mr. Faisu
Faisal Shaikh is one of the most famous TikTok creators in India. However, Shaikh was recently suspended after he and fellow members of Team 7 posted a video condemning the death of a Muslim man. Shaikh’s TikTok account, @mr_faisu_07, does not currently appear to be active.
Still, the 24-year-old TikToker has reached worldwide renown, thanks to his primarily comedic content. He has translated his TikTok fame into a career in modeling and a massive Instagram following.
6) JoJo Siwa
Perhaps the best-known of TikTok influencers off the platform, JoJo Siwa has become a household name. This is likely due in part to her stint on Dance Moms, where she was a top-five finalist. At only 16, she has more than 17 million followers on the video-sharing app, and her popularity has spread to YouTube, where she has more than 10 million subscribers.
Siwa’s charming personality and bright, eye-catching motif aided her in gaining a passionate following. She has translated her success as an influencer into a career in music and television. In 2016, she released a line of bows based around her recognizable look, which sell at Claire’s.
7) Kristen Hancher
Kristen Hancher has been building her online following for years. Fans enjoy the lip-syncing videos that make up the majority of her content, along with comedic bits and makeup tutorials. More than 23 million people follow the Canadian TikToker’s account, which showcases the evolution of her genuinely incredible hair.
The 20-year-old recently became a member of Jake Paul’s Team 10 squad, relocating to a massive mansion where she lives with heaps of other social media stars. What could go wrong?
8) Gil Croes
Gilmher Croes veers from traditional TikTok lip-syncing videos to short, humorous clips. Often, these videos feature him and his brother, Jayden. Croes’ TikTok account has nearly 22 million followers, which helps pull millions of subscribers to the Aruban brothers’ shared YouTube channel.
The brothers’ charming relationship translates to their videos, which helps boost their popularity. Croes brings consistent humor to all of his uploads, poking fun at himself, his family, and anything else that comes to mind. At 26, Croes is one of the older creators who are TikTok famous.
9) Jayden Croes
Jayden Croes has built up his own impressive following on TikTok, nearly as large as his older brother’s. More than 18 million people follow his account, where Jayden, like his brother, primarily uploads comedic content. However, lip-sync videos occasionally work themselves in, and they’re always dashed with a touch of his typical humor.
The CroesBros, as they call themselves on YouTube, heavily feature one another in their videos. Their brotherly relationship and charming chemistry has helped skyrocket their popularity.
10) The Dobre twins
They love the sibling duos on TikTok. Lucas and Marcus Dobre-Mofid work TikTok’s lip-syncing style into their videos, which are almost always laced with humor. The twins rarely upload videos without one another, which cemented their brand as a family team. Their shared TikTok account has 18 million followers.
Considering they started out on Vine, it’s no surprise these two became TikTok famous. Their videos, vlogs, pranks, and gymnastics lend the 20-year-olds’ channel a more authentic edge. In addition, they’ve branched out to YouTube, where they create content with their older brothers Cyrus and Darius.
More than 15 million people follow Savannah LaBrant‘s TikTok account. She posts videos of herself and her family, particularly focusing on herself and her daughter, Everleigh. She created an impressive Instagram following before veering onto other social media platforms. After her marriage to Musical.ly star Cole LaBrant, she took to TikTok and quickly became famous there.
LaBrant is perhaps better known for creating the YouTube channel The LaBrant Fam, which has more than 10 million subscribers. Her content revolves almost exclusively around her family, usually dancing and lip-syncing to popular music.
12) Lauren Godwin
Slice-of-life humor is often the most relatable, a fact that Lauren Godwin understands well. Her comedic uploads often feature her, a 19-year-old Houston native, going about her life. Videos vary between pranks, often on her fellow TikToker boyfriend Sebastian, and funny skits.
Godwin rarely veers into lip-syncing videos, but when she does they tend to incorporate her friends. Her 16.5 million TikTok followers flock to her page to follow her and Sebastian’s relationship and to chuckle at the impressive number of pranks the two manage to pull on one another.
13) Awez Darbar
Dancing TikToks are some of the best videos the site has to offer, and many of the better ones come from Awez Darbar, a 26-year-old from Mumbai. His page is loaded with stunning choreography and short, humorous clips. A rumor is floating around that he and Nagma Mirajkar, who appears in many of his videos, are in a relationship. Neither has confirmed the claim.
Darbar is one of TikTok’s older users—perhaps this is why his content has a more polished look than many TikTok uploads.
14) Riyaz Afreen
At only 15 years old, Riyaz Afreen is already famous on TikTok and elsewhere. His viral videos have earned him nearly 23 million followers on TikTok alone, not to mention his 5 million Instagram followers. His success on TikTok has helped him forge a career in modeling, particularly on Instagram.
Afreen’s uploads most often feature him lip-syncing to popular Indian tracks and feature other Indian artists who are also TikTok famous, such as Mr. Faisu and Aashika Bhatia.
15) Rebecca Zamolo
Some of TikTok’s most delightful videos simply consist of talented people showing off their skills. This is the case with Rebecca Zamolo, whose talent as a gymnast helped her become TikTok famous.
Her collaboration with husband and fellow social media star Matt Slays boosted her career on YouTube as well as TikTok. Zamolo’s videos typically consist of humorous clips, with a few lip-syncing videos tossed in. Her TikTok account boasts nearly 12 million followers, which is just shy of her YouTube channels, where her accounts have around 15 million combined subscribers.
16) Jayden Bartels
Jayden Bartels has been hard at work making a name for herself on TikTok as well as in television and music. The 14-year-old is one of the youngest of the famous TikTok creators—her account is up to 7.5 million followers.
While Bartels’ fans can enjoy her in a number of television series, including It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, her TikTok videos often feature her showing off her dance skills or lip-syncing. She even released her own music years before most people get their first job.
17) Garima Chaurasia
This 21-year-old TikTok star went viral earlier this year thanks to a video of her dancing and lip-synhing along with “Boht Hard” by Emiway Bantai. Garima Chaurasia’s success on TikTok, where she has 16.6 million followers, has also allowed her to pursue a career in modeling.
The majority of Chaurasia’s videos feature her dancing and lip-syncing to popular Indian songs. She also uploads videos of her modeling shoots, which her fans gobble up.
18) Avneet Kaur
Avneet Kaur began her career at only 9 years old, when she participated in an Indian dance competition in 2010. Now, the 18-year-old famous TikTok creator spends most of her time working as a television actress in India. Many of her TikToks feature behind-the-scenes footage of her days on set. She has almost 17 million followers.
When she’s not acting, Kaur is perfecting her choreography and uploading lip-syncing videos with her family and close friends. Her acting career doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon, however, so TikTok will likely remain a fun hobby.
Despite the near-constant swirl of controversy surrounding her, Danielle Cohn is a longtime favorite on TikTok. She first became popular online at the age of 13, though questions about her true age have persisted after a Facebook post from her father went viral. In the post, Cohn’s father stated that the YouTuber and TikToker is not 15, as advertised, but is in fact only 13.
If his post is true, that means Cohn first found online fame via Musical.ly at only 11 years old. Her typical uploads to TikTok, where she has just under 14 million followers, are in classic TikTok style: They feature the young influencer lip-syncing to voice clips and popular songs.
20) Maverick Baker
While Maverick and Cash Baker have their own TikTok accounts, the siblings’ best content is done in tandem. Their shared account, however, has far fewer followers than either brother’s individual page. Maverick Baker, who boasts 11 million TikTok followers, typically uploads comedic clips or lip-syncing videos with his younger brother.
The 18-year-old influencer releases music with his brother, but they aren’t the only famous social media personalities in the family. Between Maverick, Cash and their sister Lani, the Baker family has a total of 28 million TikTok followers.
21) Lucky Dancer
Arhan Khan has been famous on TikTok since he was only 14 years old. The now-17-year-old dancer takes to the video-sharing app to show off his dance moves and occasionally lip-sync to popular Indian tracks.
Much of Khan’s time is taken up by the dance workshops he teaches in India. Arishfa Khan, another person who is TikTok famous, is prominently featured in many of his videos.
22) Arishfa Khan
Another popular TikTokker who found their start as an actor, Arishfa Khan first started acting at age 9. Now 16, Khan has gained 17.7 million TikTok followers with her lip-syncing videos and occasional comedic content.
Thanks in part to her success on TikTok, Khan has forged a successful YouTube channel, as well. She posts makeup tutorial videos in addition to vlogs and skin care routines. Many of her TikToks feature Lucky Dancer, a friend and fellow TikToker.
23) Jannat Zubair Rahmani
One of India’s most famous TikTok accounts belongs to 17-year-old Jannat Zubair Rahmani. She boasts just under 20 million followers on her account, where she posts videos in typical TikTok style. Many of her uploads feature her younger brother, bringing a charming family dynamic to her page.
The TikToker has also found success as an actress. She has been featured in a number of television and film roles, including Bharat Ka Veer Putra–Maharana Pratap. On TikTok, she often shares music that she produces alongside her more casual content.
24) Manjul Khattar
Manjul Khattar found his start before pivoting to TikTok. His account has more than 12.5 million followers, and the popular influencer has robust followings on several other social media sites as well as YouTube.
Khattar’s TikTok videos became famous thanks to his unique comedic style. Sprinkled into his uploads are TikToks of the 21-year-old lip-syncing along with music and voice clips.
25) Aitana and Paula
Another popular sibling duo, Aitana and Paula Etxeberria—or Twin Melody—reached viral fame thanks to a 2016 video titled “Juju on Dat Beat” The video was immensely popular and has garnered more than 34 million views on YouTube. The identical twins bring the same energy to many of their TikToks, which feature them dancing, lip-syncing and spending time together.
The duo bring a charming sibling element to every video. Though the majority of their uploads to TikTok, where they have 9.7 million followers, are of the twins dancing, they also attempt a number of viral challenges and occasionally work humor in.
When TikTok first launched in September 2017, many people didn’t have high hopes for the video-sharing app. Following its merger with the better-known app Musical.ly a few months after that, however, people started paying attention.
Now, two years later, TikTok is one of the most prominent apps out there: People are even finding ways to watch TikTok online, with viral videos traveling outside of the app itself. Particularly among teenagers, TikTok has been on an exponential rise.
But as the app reaches more people, some find themselves hamstrung by its restrictions. For users who prefer to enjoy the occasional viral TikTok online, rather than downloading the app, there are some options.
How to watch TikTok online, without downloading the app
TikTok has become massively popular over the past few years. While hardcore Vine fans will tell you TikTok pales in comparison to its beloved predecessor, most teenagers would disagree.
In truth, many of TikTok’s most popular users began on Vine. These users create massive amounts of content, much of which is mostly intended for longtime fans. For the rest of us, only those rare viral gems or sweeping challenges are really worth our hard-earned time.
Without downloading the app, however, it can be a real struggle to locate and enjoy some of TikTok’s best selections. Never fear, random internet user: I have some options for you.
Watch TikTok online through its website
Let’s begin with the most obvious solution. While the TikTok app is easily the best way to locate and enjoy the internet’s best TikToks, you don’t need it to watch the videos housed on the TikTok website. A visit to TikTok.com will let you locate thousands of videos.
Videos that are currently trending have their own page, where you can browse through the top selections. Clicking on the name of a TikTok creator will take you to their page, but there is no search option. That means tracking down a specific video is only possible by finding the creator through a trending video or hashtag and then browsing their page until you find the video you’re looking for. It’s not an ideal process.
Many viral videos are born out of hashtags, which thankfully have their own pages. You can find trending hashtags online from nearly every page of the TikTok website. Click on one and you’ll be taken to a page that houses dozens of videos revolving around the hashtag. From there, you can enjoy specific trends and track down creators.
Again, the lack of a search option severely limits the usefulness of TikTok’s website. Most non-TikTokers focus on tracking down specific videos and likely would prefer to avoid endless browsing. The tactic is almost surely intended to encourage more app downloads, but it makes the site far less useful. Still, nearly every TikTok ever made exists somewhere on the site, if you have the patience to track it down.
Watch TikToks on YouTube
Now to the most accessible site for finding and enjoying TikTok online: YouTube. YouTube is easily accessible, simple to use and most internet-dwelling people are already familiar with it. You can access the website from mobile, laptop, or many modern gaming systems, not to mention streaming devices such as Roku.
Unlike the TikTok website, YouTube has an easy-to-locate search bar at the top of its home screen. A quick search for “TikToks” will yield plenty of compilations, but you can get far more specific if you’d like. Searching for a particular viral challenge or dance compilation will produce plenty of videos, and most viral TikToks have made it onto the platform in one form or another. A search for “kombucha girl TikTok,” for example, resulted in several different versions of the viral favorite from Brittany Tomlinson.
YouTube is perhaps the easiest way to track down any TikTok videos that you know a small amount about. As long as you have a few solid keywords, chances are you can find it on YouTube somewhere. In addition, users looking to track down compilations of the best TikToks as well as particular users and videos should consider using YouTube.
Watch TikToks on social media websites
While YouTube and the TikTok website house the vast majority of TikToks, they don’t always track which ones are blowing up online. Even the TikTok online “trending” page doesn’t always capture the truth of the situation. Thanks to other social media sites, however, users can find the latest TikTok trends and usually enjoy the content without leaving the page.
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are arguably the most prominent social media platforms around. Most young people spend at least a few minutes a day on one of these sites. Plus, viral challenges and memes, in particular, have a tendency to litter these sites.
Twitter’s hashtag system makes tracking most viral moments easy, and its search bar is a huge help. Instagram’s recognizably structured hashtags work in a similar way, though the search feature is less streamlined than Twitter’s, particularly for nonusers. Facebook is the most widely used, but it’s perhaps the least useful when it comes to tracking viral trends.
Each of these sites house a slew of old videos that typically have been redistributed by hundreds, if not thousands, of users. For people looking for reactions and memes, these sites are perfect options. Searching for specific trends, like the #RaindropChallenge, will yield their videos and responses to them. Plus, Twitter has a few dozen pages dedicated to everything from TikTok creators to TikTok memes.
As an added bonus, the best memes often come from reactions to popular trends. Such things are born on sites like Twitter and Instagram, where conversations organically unfold around viral moments. Who knows, maybe you’ll find the next viral TikTok meme in its infancy.
TikTok is a super-popular, short-form video app for iOS and Android that launched in 2017 and has since been downloaded over one billion times. But who is the company behind the success story? Who created TikTok? The answer is Chinese technology giant ByteDance. Here’s everything there is to know about the company, including its other app creations.
Who created TikTok? Everything you need to know about ByteDance
Beijing-based ByteDance was founded in March 2012 by Yiming Zhang, who is still the current CEO. Zhang is a successful entrepreneur who founded several travel and property search engine products prior to ByteDance.
In the Chinese market, ByteDance competes with other tech giants like Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent, but unlike this trio, ByteDance has seen considerable international success outside the Chinese market.
According to Reuters, the company has a valuation of over $75 billion. This makes it one of the world’s most valuable startups. To put this figure in context, Facebook’s initial public offering in 2012 saw the company hit a $104 billion valuation.
While it’s still a private company, there were recent rumors that ByteDance has 2020 plans for an initial public offering in Hong Kong, something the company has denied.
The ByteDance portfolio
As well as platforms only available in the Chinese market, like the huge news aggregator called Toutiao and a messaging app called Flipchat, ByteDance owns and operates a substantial portfolio of international companies spanning 150 markets and 75 languages. Among those apps are:
BaBe, or full name Baca Berita, is a leading news and content app in the Indonesian market. With over 1,000 publisher partners, users can customize the news and entertainment they want to see.
A popular social media platform in India, Helo is available in 14 Indian languages including Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam. The app is available for iOS and Android, and the company is headquartered in New Delhi.
Founded in 2016 and based in Singapore, Lark is described as “a new take on the office suite that is transforming workplace collaboration.” It combines tools in a single platform, including chat, a calendar, content creation, and cloud storage.
With the goal of being “the leading destination for short-form mobile video,” TikTok is an iOS and Android app (and a website) that lets users view, post, and share short video clips. It has global offices in North America, Europe, India, and the Far East.
Douyin is basically the Chinese version of TikTok. Although it’s essentially the same platform, Douyin runs on different systems to meet with Chinese censorship restrictions.
Vigo Video is a platform for content creators aged 16-plus to make short-form video and create live broadcasts. Available on iOS and Android, users can make money by receiving in-app gifts from fans.
Houshan Video is the Chinese version of Vigo Video and is a very popular short-form video app in the region.
What does the future hold for ByteDance?
In China, ByteDance has just made its much-rumored debut into the smartphone market.
The Smartisan Nut Pro 3 is a well-specced handset available now priced at around $400. As you’d expect, the phone comes with Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, preloaded.
It’s very unlikely that ByteDance will attempt to launch hardware in already highly developed smartphone markets like the U.S., although it may well do so in other international territories.
Meanwhile, industry sources have suggested that ByteDance is considering developing a music-streaming app. With both an ad-supported free version, and a premium tier for those prepared to pay, it’s thought the tech giant will target as yet undeveloped emerging markets. Now you know everything about who created TikTok — or rather…what created TikTok.
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