The Corn on the Cob Challenge went horribly wrong for Jason Derulo, who took to TikTok on Tuesday to try the stunt and chipped some teeth in the process.
The video begins with Deruloholding an electric drill with a corn on the cob attached to it. Deruloenthusiastically asks the camera, “Hey, have ya’ll seen this? I’ve always wanted to try it! Lifehack.”
He then attempts to eat the corn on the cob as it rotates on the drill, increasing the speed of the rotation as the video continues. Approximately six seconds into his unconventional snack, Derulo shouts out in pain and lifts his head to reveal that he has chipped his front teeth.
TMZ also reports that Derulo’s teeth were looking as good as new by Tuesday afternoon.
The singer-songwriter-turned-TikTok-star is no stranger to the app and can frequently be found sharing videos to his over 20 million followers and accumulating over 250 million likes.
Derulo is not the first to test his fate for the challenge—or chip some teeth in the process. The challenge first surfaced on the internet in 2016 when a China-based vlogger nicknamed Eater Yang posted a video of himself eating electrically rotating corn on the cob in under 10 seconds. The trend spread through the internet as people began posting themselves trading their utensils for power tools.
Some may recall the viral video from 2016 showing a girl attempting the challenge only for her long hair to be caught on the drill and partially ripped out of her head. Since then, a handful of challenge takers have suffered hard-to-watch injuries, mainly losing teeth in the process.
Four years later, the corn challenge has reemerged on Tik Tok and has made Derulo its most famous victim.
Two California high schoolers posted a TikTok video of themselves in blackface with a racist caption. On Monday, the Kern High School District announced it would be launching an investigation into the video, according to KGET.
In the video, the girls use Tekashi 6ix9ine’s new song “GOOBA” for their TikTok. They can be seen putting on blackface makeup in the video, captioned, “If we can switch genders, can we switch races?”
Being that the two girls featured in the video are minors, their identities have not been made public. One of the teens involved posted an apology online, saying, “I know what I did was horribly wrong and both [redacted] and I are deeply sorry. The video was a horrible joke that was not meant to hurt anyone, but I understand now how much it affects people.”
The teen goes on to write, “I am not a racist or a fat shamer. I love every one of every race and culture. I hope everyone that I hurt can forgive me for being so disrespectful.”
TikTok creator, @fatherco0n, who is known for speaking out against racist social media activity, reacted to the video with the caption, “Are you gonna be racist or are you gonna listen to Tekashi69? Pick a disease.”
the person doing blackface’s @ on tiktok is addie.6704 and her school is frontier high school in bakersfield, ca. @FrontierTitans i have no followers so my big accs help me out pic.twitter.com/8yBjbl8QVS
As the video began making its way around Twitter, users began publicizing the girls’ names and calling for them to be reprimanded. One Twitter user wrote, “It doesn’t take a genius to realize right from wrong, they’re big girls let them take responsibility for their poor decisions!!”
black twitter, DO YOUR THING and find her/drag her/ruin her idc. quarantine got y’all doing the most RACIST shit pic.twitter.com/aWVlrC2X8D
There’s a viral new TikTok challenge that doubles as an opportunity to do some cleaning around the house.
It’s called the “Wipe It Down” challenge, and its premise is simple: TikTokkers start off by wiping down a mirror with some sort of cleaning supply in time with BMW Kenny’s “Wipe It Down.” On the third or fourth “wipe,” TikTokkers scrub their way to an alternate reality in which they’re sporting a vastly different wardrobe.
Fox News credits comedian Lauren Compton with originating the “Wipe It Down” challenge last week, posting a video in which she goes from wearing a bedtime robe to donning full Harley Quinn makeup and attire for a split second. The video has earned over 21 million views and 2.6 million likes.
Apparently over 100,000 people have tried the “Wipe It Down” challenge since then, including several high-profile TikTok stars whose followers number in the millions. Among them are singer and beauty mogul Sterling Monett, makeup guru Abby Roberts, and film producer/Marilyn Monroe lookalike Jasmine Chiswell. Teen YouTube star and dancer JoJo Siwa even participated in the “Wipe It Down” challenge by ditching her signature bow and letting her hair down.
If you simply search BMW Kenny’s “Wipe It Down” on TikTok, you’ll find thousands of other videos by content creators taking part in the same viral trend.
Hopefully as these TikTokkers participate in the “Wipe It Down” challenge, they remember to actually give their mirrors a proper cleaning beyond those few broad strokes.
Jason Derulo recently caught heat for sampling a viral TikTok song without receiving clearance or crediting its creator.
The song is called “Laxed (Siren Beat),” and it belongs to 17-year-old New Zealand musician Joshua Nanai, who performs under the moniker Jawsh 685.
Nanai’s artist name is a nod to his Samoan and Cook Island roots, as “685” is the Samoa calling code. His reggae-inspired TikTok smash is a “siren jam,” or a song meant to be blasted from car or bike speakers, as is customary in New Zealand and other Pacific Island regions.
“Laxed (Siren Beat)” has been used in over 36 million TikToks, prompted a viral TikTok dance, accumulated more than 9 million Spotify streams, and earned Nanai a deal with Columbia Records, Varietyreports. So fans were none too pleased when Derulo cribbed its melody for his forthcoming song “Savage Love,” which he previewed on TikTok last week.
As “Laxed (Siren Beat)” swelled in popularity, Nanai had reportedly been in talks with several artists about remixing the track, Derulo included. Apparently, Derulo didn’t want to wait and built his own song around the beat, though both parties have reportedly not reached an agreement regarding compensation yet. (Derulo’s reps did not respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment by press time.)
Nanai’s fans quickly called Derulo out for not crediting Nanai in his “Savage Love” post.
“Lowkey if you’re ganna [sic] make this your actual song. Then it’s best to give more then just credit to @jawsh_685 js it’s only fair,” one TikTok user commented on Derulo’s post.
The pop star later commented on his own video, “Recognize this sound?!?” and gave Nanai a shoutout in his next “Savage Love”-related TikTok, writing, “Had fun remixing @jawsh_685 siren beat.”
Still, many fans considered this to be insufficient, considering Derulo lifted an entire melody from Nanai and made no mention of him at all in his first post. Even worse, Derulo’s videos created a new “Savage Love” track on TikTok, potentially redirecting users who wanted to discover the source of the melody. Credit was a good start, many TikTok users argued, but Nanai also deserved money.
“But is jawsh getting any money from his beat????” one user asked.
Another user summed it up accurately: “Don’t just credit, GIVE HIM HIS COINSSSSS.”
A video from an employee at Minnesota-based chain Caribou Coffee has gone viral after showing coffee sleeves with an outdated message.
Michael Reinhardt posted the video to TikTok two days ago, showing a bin full of coffee sleeves with “very on-brand” messaging. However, some sleeves had the phrase “Fight the urge to remain indoors” printed on them, and Reinhardt had to go through and remove them.
The video was highlighted by Washington Post TikTok curator Dave Jorgenson on Tuesday, and now has more than 1.3 million views. But it seems the sleeves have been circulating for a bit. One commenter posted about it on April 25; another posted on April 1.
A spokesperson told the Daily Dot that while on the clock, employees were asked to “sort out materials that were produced before the pandemic and aren’t exactly on point with the heroic efforts that are being made to contain the coronavirus.” Minnesota is still working towards its phased reopening of bars and restaurants.
But Caribou Coffee has remained open, and employees have been pushing for more protective measures over the last month, including personal protective equipment and paid sick leave. Earlier this week, employees staged a second protest, backed by Restaurant Opportunities Center of Minnesota, demanding safer working conditions as well as hazard pay.
According to Bring Me the News, the ROC states employees are asking for better access to masks and cleaning supplies as well as a “robust and comprehensive sick leave policy in all stores.” In a statement to the outlet, Caribou said it’s “made several changes over the past few months to enhance social distancing, promote overall safety, and introduce contactless interaction in every store.” A 10 percent pay increase was also reportedly instituted for the month of May.
Asked about employee safety measures, the spokesperson directed us to a post about curbside and contactless methods of service.
While TikTok creator Emily Brand (@emilyybrandd) was away at college, her dad made sure to say hello every day via their home’s Ring doorbell.
Ring doorbells are a measure of home security involving a digital doorbell with video and sound recording capabilities. While some users employ the doorbell to let them know when their children get home from school or as a deterrent to thieves looking to steal packages, Brand uses it to keep in contact with her father.
“I told my dad I watch the ring videos at home when I’m away at college and he started leaving me messages,” Brand wrote on TikTok, where the video went viral.
The video also went viral on Twitter, where it was reposted by user @allisonr_.
In the video compilation, in one greeting, Brand’s father tells his daughter he got $9 off a purchase at Rite Aid. In others, he tells her about the drizzling rain and cold weather. Most of the clips start off with Brand’s father saying, “Hey Em.”
“Hey Em. Sorry, I couldn’t read your text yet. I was driving,” he says in one clip. “Hey Em, imagine you’re pregaming right now,” he says in another. He also tells her to have a great day on numerous occasions.
“Hey Em. Your mom’s wrong again,” he says in one.
On Twitter, the sweet video has commenters praising Brand’s father for his sense of humor. “That’s a classic,” one said of his “pregaming” remark, with another calling him “precious.”
Others think he looks like Walter White, the crystal meth-cooking science teacher from Breaking Bad.
“Your dad doesn’t happen to own an RV and take sporadic trips to the New Mexico desert, does he?” Twitter user @chipoffyoblock questioned.
In the four weeks that she’s been on TikTok, Lex Scott has been banned for two. Scott said TikTok removed two of her videos discussing police brutality because they “violated community guidelines.”
Scott, the founder of Black Lives Matter Utah, had seen videos from other Black creators who said they were facing the same problem: When they made TikToks to call out racism, they were taken down. Other TikToks containing racist remarks, they say, remain on the website.
“You feel powerless, like someone has taken away your rights of expression,” Scott said. “You cannot believe you are being punished for speaking out against racism, but the people who are posting actual racist content are never held responsible.”
TikTok did not respond to a request for a comment but has previously admitted to “shadowbanning” videos from people who were deemed as susceptible to being bullied. This prevents TikToks from showing up on the “for you” page and being widely seen.
On May 7, Scott posted a TikTok describing an app wide “Blackout” to take place on March 19, Malcom X’s birthday.
Scott said the video didn’t immediately gain traction but received more attention after other creators used the hashtag #ImBlackMovement, which was created by Elijah Brockington (@datboybrock).
Scott said the goals for the Blackout, which occurred on Tuesday, was for users to only “like” content from Black creators, change their profile pictures to a Black power fist, and create videos of themselves to raise awareness.
“This video can talk about how Black creators are being banned, how videos are being taken down, and how white racists are allowed to flourish,” Scott said in her TikTok.
Iman (@theemuse) saw Scott’s video about a week after it was posted and created her own video to amplify the Blackout.
Iman said after seeing that her videos had racked up 10 million views, she was shocked.
“I never expected it to do this,” said Iman, who chose not to share her last name for privacy reasons. “I kept scrolling on my ‘for you’ page, and I saw Black creator after Black creator. It was the most amazing thing because it’s nothing I’ve ever seen before.”
Often, she said Black creators like herself aren’t given a reason why the post was removed, which is not normally TikTok’s practice.
“A lot of pro-Black creators, they’re just trying to spread the message of equality,” Iman said. “When you’re constantly shadowbanning, taking down videos uplifting our communities, that’s when it gets harmful, especially when you allow white supremacists to reign on the app.”
After seeing the success of the Blackout protest, Iman is calling for another protest on Juneteeth. She wants her followers and other creators to leave TikTok for a day and rate the platform one star on the App Store.
“This is important because in (the) world we live in today, where Black people have a lot of our culture appropriated or taken from us, I feel like there’s something that we should do let people know … we make good content too,” Brockington said. “It’s just not Caucasian people blowing up on the app with 50 million followers. We deserve some of the hype, too.”
Scott has also created another iteration of the Blackout: a call to post about and support Black-owned businesses from June 15 to June 19. She said she hopes people participate in both hers and Iman’s ideas to create a change within TikTok’s policies.
“[TikTok should] change community guidelines and allow Black people to speak,” Scott said. “Racists never want to hear about racism… because then they have to face their own place in the oppression of Black and brown people. When we make a video calling them out on their racism, they don’t want to see it. They flag us, we get our accounts taken down and TikTok is complicit.”
Like the social media platforms that have come before it, as TikTok has grown in popularity, it’s faced thorny questions about free speech. Predominantly, whether they will allow white nationalist and conspiratorial content on its platform.
In recent days, conspiracy theorist and InfoWars host Owen Shroyer‘s TikTok account was suspended. But an account with over 20,000 followers dedicated to posting videos of the host remains live.
Another InfoWars host, David Knight, also had his account suspended on the increasingly popular platform, which hosts a wide range of videos, from dances to political discourse to pranks.
A TikTok spokesperson told the Daily Dot that Shroyer and Knight were banned for a violation of their “Community Guidelines.”
“We are committed to promoting a safe and positive app environment for our users. Our Community Guidelines outline behavior that is not acceptable on the platform, and we take action against behavior that violates those policies, including by removing content or accounts,” the statement stated.
InfoWars didn’t return a request for comment from the Daily Dot regarding its use of the platform.
TikTok has been cracking down on hate speech in recent months.
Following the Daily Dot’s reporting on white nationalist Nick Fuentes, TikTok banned him from the platform, along with fellow far-right campus activists Jacob Lloyd and Jaden McNeil.
Fuentes, following his ban, launched a series of unsuccessful attempts to return and conduct live streams on TikTok with his followers, which failed.
The Daily Dot also learned that “Unite the Right” attendee and white nationalist Groyper Matthew Colligan (@zoomermatthew) had his TikTok account suspended recently.
The “America First Hype House,” a page where white nationalists wanted to gather together online, has also been booted by TikTok.
However, despite the efforts, hate speech on the platform remains.
Those that still have accounts on TikTok include personalities such as far-right YouTube pundit Vincent James (@realvincentjames), white nationalist and neo-Nazi student organization leader Patrick Casey (@patrickcaseyusa), and white nationalist Canadian activist Faith Goldy (@faithgoldy).
Neo-Nazi personality Tim Gionet (@realbakedalaska), who more goes by the persona “Baked Alaska,” also remains on the platform.
A TikTok spokesperson didn’t elaborate when asked by the Daily Dot on why some characters have been banned and other fringe personalities remain.
A teen TikTokker lip-synched the N-word in a TikTok and then laughed at people who tried to explain to her why the word was offensive.
The TikTokker, who is Chicana, lip-synched the N-word as she danced to an unreleased Doja Cat song. She later re-uploaded the video without her lip-synching the word with the caption, “Let me remake this [because] y’all were upset.”
After she posted the video, she received a lot of heat for singing the word, but the TikTokker continued to defend her decision to use it. She participated in a series of live streams with other TikTok users, mostly Black teens, who explained that she shouldn’t use the word because of the historical significance and because she’s not Black.
But in at least two of the live streams, the TikTokker laughs as Black teens explain why her using the word is offensive. She laughed as one TikTok user said that the word has been used to “dehumanize my people.”
“Why do you think that word’s OK to use? Because you know that word is not OK to use to somebody, but you keep using it in general. And then you keep laughing,” one TikTok user said to her in a live stream.
The teen who posted the video said, “This is so funny to me.”
In another live stream, a TikTokker explains why the “whole Black community is mad” about her decision to say the word and then defend it. The girl who posted the video responded saying, “It’s funny that you’re mad.”
Clips of the live stream are circulating online. In them, the only excuse she gives for why she should be able to say the N-word is that “it’s 2020.” She also lists people, like her friends, who think that the situation is funny and that it’s OK to say the word as “long as you’re not white.”
Twitter users are enraged about the situation.
“This little girl was laughing in her face while she was trying to explain why her using the N-word was offensive,” Twitter user @wavyemma wrote. “This is why the term ‘POC’ and ‘Black’ are not synonymous.”
Throughout the drama, the teen continued to climb in followers. She now has over 100-thousand followers and 1.4 million likes on her videos.
A TikTok challenge that reportedly prompts users to dance like they have cerebral palsy is receiving backlash online.
The “Break Your Wrist” challenge allegedly requires participants to put their hands in the air, bend their wrists, put their hands across their chest, and bite their lips, Indian news site Republic World reported. Cerebral palsy is a movement disorder that can include symptoms such as stiff muscles and tremors.
TikTok star Charli D’Amelio seemingly condemned the trend in question in a tweet on Saturday. “Hello everyone, there is a sound going around on tiktok making fun of disabilities. that is completely unacceptable, wrong, and the fact that people think that the ”trend” is not disrespectful and disgusting is not okay!” D’Amelio tweeted.
Others denounced the alleged trend as well. “I suffer from cerebral palsy and to see people making fun of the disability I suffer (from) digusts me so much. Dont be discriminating people because of their disability and think about them!” one Twitter user wrote.
Others called on TikTok directly to take action. “Hey @tiktok_uk why is it not against guidelines to allow a video / dance that mocks people with cerebral palsy? The dance from adoreee_dee that has been reported to you hundreds of times is so offensive but you’re okay with that?” Twitter user @allabout_abbie questioned.
TikTok user @adoreee_dee reportedly took part in the challenge, but the Daily Dot did not find the video on the account on Thursday afternoon. It is unclear how many videos of the challenge were on the platform, but a TikTok spokesperson told the Daily Dot in a statement that it removed the content in question.
“This behavior does not reflect our values and is against the code of conduct outlined in our Community Guidelines. The content in question has been removed and we will take action against any similar content that violates our policies,” the spokesperson stated.
TikTok’s community guidelines state it does “not allow content that verbally or physically threatens violence or depicts harm to an individual or a group based on” serious diseases or disabilities.
Female TikTok users say they are fighting back against the misogynistic comments they see online with the phrase “OK wallet.”
The #OKWallet trend flips the script of misogynist insults for women like “sandwich maker” or “a dishwasher.” Urban Dictionary explains that similarly to how someone may call women “dishwashers,” as in their only purpose is to wash the dishes, the “OK wallet” insult is “based on the joke that a man’s only purpose is his money.”
Jessi Balcon, a 20-year-old TikTok user from Washington, said she first saw the trend a couple of weeks ago when preteen girls were using it to fight back against misogynist comments. For her, the trend is a way to take back the advice she has been given her entire life when she has spoken out against normalized misogyny in humor: “Just play along and joke back.’”
“I think that the reason so many people are offended by it is an unawareness of the normalized misogyny that they were taught,” Balcon told Daily Dot. “When the objectification is turned around and put onto them, it becomes apparent just how hurtful that can be.”
Sofia Borén, a 19-year-old from Sweden, said she primarily sees it as an “easy clap-back” and reversal of the ways objectifying rhetoric is used against women.
“I think counter-rhetorics is crucial when it comes to internet culture,” Borén told Daily Dot. “For now, it’s just a quick clap-back at misogynists, but I hope it can inspire more funny responses. I know we need to continue developing our ways of responding to trolls, because they won’t leave us alone, so we shouldn’t let them be in peace either.”
“It’s all about clever rhetorics and who make the other person shut up,” she added.
The men of TikTok who have engaged with this trend have fired back at the response, questioning if being “used for your money” is really an insult mostly because it implies that you have money to begin with.
Jeron Combs is a California prisoner serving sentences for first-degree murder and attempted murder. He’s now found viral fame in an unusual place: TikTok.
Combs, 31, shows his over 160,000 TikTok followers how he creates meals with pre-packaged food items and a makeshift grill.
In one video, he makes a burrito on the “grill” from his jail cell. The video, which is set to Justin Bieber’s “Yummy,” now has over 900,000 views and over 120,000 likes. (Many of his videos receives millions of views.)
In another video, he manages to create a layer cake and sprinkles. Followers are praising his creativity, saying that he could be a chef. He told the Daily Mail that making his own food is better than anything the inmates get served.
He then explained how he made the makeshift grill, which can also be seen in a video dedicated to the grill. “I broke a hot pot down and took the plate out of it and sanded my bunk down to the metal to cook from it,” he told the newspaper.
Tacos, quesadillas, bacon, burritos, rice bowls, and burgers are just some of the meals he makes, with burritos being his favorite. “I make food for my cellmate and some friends at times for special occasions,” he said. “I have a passion for cooking. I have been in jail since 18 and this is where I learned all my cooking from.”
He explained that he makes all of the ingredients, and if he doesn’t have what he needs, he gets it from friends. They compile food together and “just make it work.”
One thing Combs hopes comes out of his new social media fame is the reality of prison life.
“I don’t want people to look down on us because of the mistakes we made and see that jail is a different place for some people,” he said. “Some people think that it’s all about violence and what they hear or see on TV, but it’s so much more to what people don’t see. I want to be able to enlighten them on what’s going on behind these walls.”
The video captioned, “I will miss him,” starts with a woman mopping the floors. A man enters into the frame and carelessly walks through her freshly swept floors. The next thing viewers see is the woman dancing as she holds a body bag, which is supposed to appear to be the man who ruined her clean floors.
The TikTok is riffing off the viral pallbearer meme. The pallbearer videos typically show someone doing something reckless, stupid, or inconsiderate before the pallbearers dance while holding a coffin.
The TikTok is part of a trend of people building onto this meme, but it’s not surprising that people may have been shocked when they saw their neighbor dancing around with a body bag.
Chino, California local news outlet KTLA5 reports that neighbors thought they were witnessing a crime in progress and called the police, sounding the alarm that they had seen a woman carrying a “dead body.” The “dead body” was actually a dummy dressed in clothing, so police chalked it up to a misunderstanding.
This isn’t the first time that a TikTok required law enforcement to get involved. They’ve been called for incidents like underage girls driving a car for TikTok clout, a man licking supermarket items after news of the coronavirus spread, and more serious cases like bullying and even a suicide that was live-streamed on the video platform.
The police are also spending more time on the app in order to find and to warn parents about potentially dangerous TikTok challenges, like the “skullbreaker” challenge.
Luckily, this time around, it ended up being a harmless joke.
The “Wipe It Down” challenge on TikTok has blessed us with all sorts of creativity, and even some high expectations for the future of certain YouTube stars.
But for every online craze, there is always someone who comes along to take things to a new level. In an unexpected turn of events, in this case, that person is Jason Derulo.
The “Talk Dirty” singer shared his take on the challenge, which always features someone wiping down a mirror to the tune of BMW Kenny’s “Wipe It Down” until they somehow change appearances, over the weekend. And there is so much to unpack here.
First of all, Derulo probably could have been crowned the king of this challenge just by starting with his shirt off.
Of course, the main event is that he freaking turns into Spider-Man, with phenomenal special effects that are making the internet ready to burn down Sony’s door demanding yet another reboot with Derulo front and center.
“Jason Derulo gonna be the fourth Spider-Man,” one declared.
Just kidding!
Obviously the main event is how thirsty everyone is after seeing the man, most famous for iconically singing his own name in basically all of his songs, in that, um, incredibly tight costume.
“Loved this one Jason! Great c*ck!” one user not-so-subtly wrote. Others renamed the app “DikTok” and joked that Derulo has a “TikTok premium pro+” account.
Derulo has famously run into problems(?) with his package before. Last year, he had a photo deleted from Instagram because simply posting a picture in his underwear was considered too graphic to meet community standards, thanks to his massive bulge. He also casually mentioned to Andy Cohen that Cats “CGI’d the dick out” in regard to his character, presumably to keep the movie family-friendly.
But while there’s plenty of editing at work for Derulo’s TikTok video, airbrushing his size down was clearly not a concern.
But can we also talk about the fact that he has what appears to be a vinyl copy of Taylor Swift’s reputation album on display in his closet?
There’s a challenge on TikTok called “Perfect Ingredients” that’s been recreated over 400,000 times. In the videos, a small amount of water might signify positive qualities like “funny” or “cute.” But a full cup of water will signify too much of an ingredient, like “anger.” The recipe shakes out, for example, for “how God made my girlfriend.”
The trend was given a racist spin by two Georgia teens, Stephanie Freeman and Jeffery Hume, who made a recipe for Black people with slurs and stereotypes. After the video went viral, their school superintendent announced they would be expelled, and they would not be graduating. The “students’ behavior was unacceptable,” the superintendent said.
TikTok’s official guidelines say it’s “an inclusive platform built upon the foundation of creative expression.” This gives over 2 billion users the chance to create almost anything. The platform is filled with videos ranging from “storytimes”—where users usually explain something colorful that happened in their life—to home remodeling, lip-singing, and dancing clips.
The challenges on the app, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, are one of its most popular uses. The “Savage” dance challenge recently took over the app after creator Keara Wilson came up with choreography for the Megan thee Stallion song. The dance moves spread like wildfire on the app; as of this article, the audio has been used in over 23 million videos.
Racist content often has innocuous origins. But as challenges get more popular, creators take more liberties, and a trend can be skewed. When it does, there’s a question of responsibility—and consequences.
The “rate my form” challenge, for example, saw users using stereotypes to make in-group jokes about specific people. In one video, YouTuber David Dobrik made a duet video with a fan trying to give him some advice. The fan started out saying, “Here’s how to get out of the friend zone with your assistant.” Then said, “OK, now that Daivd Dobrik’s here, how’s my form?” The fan then edited himself in a car and wrote, “Can I get a Tesla?”
But a small number of users including @thesilasjames, @brijunk, and @sayhoe used racist stereotypes to participate in the trend.
can we talk abt this? this is unacceptable. even if it was meant as a joke or not. this isn’t something to joke abt. their @ on tik tok is @ thesilasjames pic.twitter.com/cZWvvuLTVx
As racially insensitive videos began to gain more popularity, creators have expressed disdain for what they see as a trend of racism bubbling beneath the surface of TikTok. Of the five content creators the Daily Dot interviewed for this piece, all mentioned they have seen some sort of racist content on the app.
“I see it happening a lot,” said Kevin Jackman, aka @keatsdidit, a 26-year-old content creator from Georgia who is known for his comedic sketches on TikTok. “That’s like the last thing that I really try to pay attention to, but it’s something that being a consumer and a popular creator. I can’t get away from it.”
As a new problematic trend emerges, users often call out and condemn the people who partake. Some recent examples of blatant racism include the “fox-eye challenge” and a trend promoting colorism, which is prejudice toward people with darker skin.
The former is a beauty trend with the goal of looking like supermodels Bella Hadid or Kendall Jenner. Participants shaved off half of an eyebrow, from the arch to their temple, drew on a straighter brow, then pulled their eyes to appear more Asian. Asian-American users said the trend was offensive and racist.
The latter doesn’t have an official name, but it became popular in India and involves people using a filter to darken their skin and looking sad. As the beat drops, they transition to having lighter skin and grinning ear to ear. The creators assert that people with darker skin are less-than and should be treated differently because of it. People of color expressed outrage with “duets” of the videos where they reacted to the source material in real time.
There are opportunities for monetary gain from TikTok, but putting a racist twist on a trend can jeopardize that. Alyssa Izquierdo owns a public relations agency called Social Cafe that aims to connect brands with influencers and help creators build relationships with these brands. A creator with a large following can begin to accumulate brand deals and sponsorships, a potential stream of income for people looking for a new career path.
“It would be too much of a liability to work with someone” who has made racially insensitive comments, even if they’ve apologized for it, Izquierdo said. She said her other clients “would most likely disagree” with her representing a racially insensitive client and would wonder why she’s still trying to get them brand deals.
But there’s a double standard for content creators. Major YouTube stars like Shane Dawson, Jeffree Star, James Charles, Tana Mongeau, and more recently, Colleen Ballinger (aka Miranda Sings), have all faced accusations of racism in their careers but seem to come out on the other side of their apology videos virtually unscathed. Dawson did blackface multiple times, Charles and Starrmade racist jokes, Mongeau said the N-word, and Ballinger made a video pretending to be a Latinx woman filled with stereotypes.These influencers claim to have grown and blamed their mistakes on ignorance.
Isabella Thompson, a 17-year-old TikTok content creator from Australia, said, “When you think about it, people have said the N-word, who are not African-American, they have apologized for it and then they can keep going and creating their stuff.”
But smaller influencers have basically been blacklisted after committing similar atrocities. Emma Hallberg is an Instagram model and influencer. She was accused of darkening her skin to appeal to brands with a Black market like Fashion Nova. She was called out and eventually lost her deal with the brand after claiming she just tanned easily.
Of course, racism and the appropriation of Black culture is not a new trend on the internet. TikTok has seen multiple cases in which white creators took ideas or concepts from creators of color without giving proper credit. The problem arises when white creators begin to see monetary benefits from the stolen content.
Taylor Lorenz is a New York Times writer who focuses on technology and influencer culture. She wrote the popular piece about Jaliah Harmon, the original creator of the “Renegade” dance that became popular on the app. Harmon saw her dance being done all over TikTok and was upset about it. She was able to connect with one of the creators who is synonymous with TikTok, Charli D’Amelio, and get recognized for making the dance. Harmon also now has a brand partnership for the new Scooby-Doo movie.
But not everyone ends up getting the credit they deserve. Lorenz remembers Peaches Monroe from Vine, the woman who created the phrase “eyebrows on fleek,” who exemplified how the culture of stealing affected earlier social media stars. The phrase was used by Nicki Minaj, Chris Brown and Christina Milian, as well as Forever 21, Taco Bell, and IHOP, but Monroe never profited. “So much of Vine is taken from Black culture,” Lorenz told the Daily Dot. “A lot of popular Vines featured people of color who never saw the money from it.”
Karen North is a clinical psychologist with an expertise in social media. She told the Daily Dot that racist trends are making their way onto TikTok because “kids are lured into behaviors by social comparison, which is the psychology term for following the leader.” This leads users to copy other users “without thinking about the ramifications or without thinking of the deeper meaning of what they are doing,” she said. As more users try the challenge, they attempt to make their video more outrageous than the last.
The content creators the Daily Dot interviewed for this story mostly agreed that the responsibility lies both with creators and TikTok, which should do a better job of regulating content on the platform. (TikTok did not respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment.) But experts warn against giving a social media platform the chance to ethically regulate racist content.
“People believe that there are First Amendment rights when we speak or act on social and digital media,” North said. “But that’s not the case.”
Yotam Ophir, an assistant communications professor at the University at Buffalo, echoed this argument. “We’ve been living with social media for so many years but the legal system hasn’t caught up yet,” Ophir said. “So, a lot of it remains in the hands of the company.”
Apps are owned by private companies that set their own rules and guidelines, which is what the terms and conditions are. North uses the analogy of a restaurant or a club with a dress code. When going to a club, you are most likely aware that they don’t allow jeans or you have to wear a dress; if not, they’ll tell you at the door.
“When we sign on to use these things, we are agreeing to act in the ways prescribed by those companies and enumerated in their terms and conditions,” North said. “They have the right and the opportunity to find and act on anything that is against their code, but the problem is that there is a huge gray area between humor and offensive humor.”
But finding that solid line between the two is a very hard task, she said, especially with millions upon millions of pieces of content: “You have to rely on an algorithm which has a mathematical formula to identify content or other users flagging content as offensive or inappropriate,” North said.
Some users rallied together to uplift content creators of color with the #ImBlackMovement on Malcolm X’s birthday. It was a call for white creators to only “like” content from Black creators in hopes of changing the algorithm.
The future of how to ethically regulate content on apps, especially one like TikTok that’s subjected to privacy laws different from those in the U.S., remains uncertain.But Jackman offers a piece of advice for coming across racist content on the app, “When people show you who they are, believe them.”
As parts of the United States begin to lift coronavirus-related lockdown orders and public safety restrictions, Americans have grown even more emboldened to disregard the rules and do whatever they want. That includes not wearing face masks inside businesses, such as grocery stores.
But while Americans struggle to reach a conclusion on proper etiquette in these spaces, defying these rules is bound to be a source of friction, as demonstrated by a TikTok video showing one woman’s confrontational grocery store trip.
The video features a woman refusing to wear a mask inside a California-based Smart & Final store, citing a medical condition. A frustrated employee demands to see a doctor’s note, at which point the woman criticizes him for keeping his own mask under his nose.
“You just do your own thing, right? Just do whatever you want to do?” the employee asks the woman.
“It’s America, right?” she responds.
The employee then calls the woman a “loser” and threatens to call the police, to which she responds, “Call the police, please. I’ll be here.”
The initial video, uploaded by TikTok user @charliezen, has over 107,000 views. These sorts of confrontational videos have grown common over the last two months, but lucky for viewers, @charliezen provided not just one, but two follow-ups.
In the second video, the confrontational employee gets chastised by a coworker, who tells him that he shouldn’t speak to customers so rudely. The woman filming thanks the second employee, and the employee raises her fist seemingly in solidarity with her. Ironically, U2’s “Pride (In The Name Of Love)” plays over the store speakers.
The third and final video shows the woman and the original employee bickering outside the store. The employee draws attention to the scene and lets any passerby know that the woman refuses to wear a mask inside. Meanwhile, she continues to taunt him.
“You look real cool right now,” she tells the employee. “You look real sane. You look real thoughtful. You look real logical. You look real educated.”
As Americans continue to argue about the best ways to combat the spread of the coronavirus in public, these viral confrontation videos will likely keep cropping up.
Unlike most videos of the sort, the Smart & Final showdown has no winners; both parties come off as petulant children. Hopefully at least half the 107,000 people watching their fight got a kick out of it.
One girl is using TikTok to document her journey trading a bobby pin to a house, and her quest has piqued the interest of millions who are tuning into her channel.
Demi Skipper, who goes by @TradeMeProject on TikTok, uploaded a brief explanation of her mission to go from hair-clip owner to homeowner. In the video, she explains that she got the idea from Canadian blogger Kyle MacDonald who back in 2006 successfully bartered his way into a two-story farmhouse, starting with only a red paperclip. The blogger had started trading just a year before that.
“With all the bad news happening right now, it seemed like the perfect time to do something a little bit wild,” Skipper told the Daily Dot. “Two others have done this in the past that have inspired me, Kyle MacDonald in 2005 and Logan Paluzzi of @youngschnoz.”
In one of her first videos, the TikTokker also explains that she has already made several trades, upgrading from a bobby pin, to earrings, to some “pretty nice” margarita glasses, to a vacuum cleaner, and finally to a snowboard.
“Throw me a follow and watch me trade my way all the way to a house,” @trademeproject ends the short video.
So far, millions of users have liked her videos, and thousands have left comments. Skipper is surprised that so many have taken interest in her project.
“I was extremely surprised,” she said. “Within 24 hours I gained over a million followers and got thousands of messages supporting me on my journey to trade the bobby pin for a house. At one point I was gaining over 1,000 followers a minute.”
Whether or not the barterer accomplishes her lofty goal, @trademeproject now has over one million users following her on the platform, even though she has only uploaded four videos, which means she has already won by internet standards.
As for how many trades she thinks it will take for her to trade for a house?
“Right now I’m at four trades and have a snowboard, so I’m hoping that within 30 I can get the house,” she said.
TikTok’s comment sections have become a battleground, and Mother Hen is winning the war.
TikTokers are increasingly turning their followings into so-called “cults.” According to Forbes, it’s all thanks to Melissa Ong, a 27-year-old comedian who posts videos about drug trips and her relationship with her baby hairs.
Ong’s cult, called the Stepchickens, can be distinguished from her 1.8 million followers by their profile pictures, which match hers. Stepchickens also refer to Ong as “Mother Hen” and heed her demands for tasks like commenting on other people’s videos.
Though her cult only recently formed, Ong’s YouTube video explains that the foundations for the Stepchickens began in May 2018 after she sent her current profile picture to a friend.
“Shortly after, she turned that photo into a mug to troll me,” Ong said in the video. “I ended up making a TikTok about it and everyone was really stoked about the picture.”
In October 2019, Ong bought a chicken costume for a Halloween party. After the costume didn’t get the appreciation she thought it deserved, she downloaded TikTok and began making videos in the costume. But most of them flopped.
“I never gave up because I believed in the chicken suit,” Ong said. “I had a gut feeling that the chicken suit was destined for greatness.”
A series of TikToks led to the eventual creation of the cult. In one video, Ong brings back the chicken costume and @curlytop_v comments, “Stepchicken what are you doing.”
The comment led Ong to create a TikTok called “Cornhub” where she parodies a popular porn plot in her chicken costume and uses the comment as a punchline.
Ong said she realized her power when she received 30,000 comments on a video in 24 hours after asking her followers to comment “e.” She then asked her followers to start commenting on other people’s videos.
Finally, Ong posted a TikTok asking her followers to suggest names for their cult. They chose Stepchickens and began changing their profile pictures to the original photo from May 2018.
Now, other TikTokers are creating cults of their own—and the fandoms are battling in comment sections. TikTok user @AdrianxOrtiz, for example, leads “the weenies.”
“TikTok culture is about to change. If you go to the comments section, you’ll see everyone’s faces on there from different cults,” @AdrianxOrtiz said in a YouTube video titled “CULTS ARE TAKING OVER TIKTOK.”
The focus, @AdrainxOrtiz said, isn’t to promote negativity but simply to see whose cult is better.
According to Forbes, these tactics are a way to increase content creators’ followings, secure sponsored deals, and build a community within TikTok.
Ong, whose following has doubled in less than a month, has also created an app called “Stepchickens” for her followers to congregate and to “glorify Mother Hen.” As of publication, the app was No. 8 in social networking after only a week.
On May 23, Ong posted a video promising to create content on OnlyFans if her followers got both her Instagram and YouTube accounts to 69,000followers. She reached 69,000 followers on Instagram the following day and is currently at47,000 subscribers on Youtube.
Ong clarified in the comments section of her video that she will use OnlyFans for more chicken suit videos—not NSFW content.
A Texas getaway came to a sudden halt for TikTok stars Bryce Hall and Jaden Hossler, who now face drug charges after being arrested Monday.
Hall and Hossler each have more than 6 million TikTok followers and make up a third of the Sway House, a group of influencers on the platform that also includes Josh Richards, Anthony Reeves, Kio Cyr, and Griffin Johnson. Richards and Johnson were present on the trip to Cedar Springs, Texas, when Hall and Hossler were arrested.
Hall, caught with less than two ounces of marijuana, was charged with a class B misdemeanor, while Hossler faces more serious charges. The sheriff’s office in Lee County disclosed, per Insider, that Hossler was arrested in possession of two to four ounces of marijuana and a controlled substance in penalty group two—which includes hallucinogens and stimulants such as DMT, ecstasy, and synthetic THC. The sheriff’s office did not say what penalty two substance Hossler was allegedly carrying, but he was charged with a second-degree felony. Hossler’s bond was set at $11,500, while Hall’s was $5,000.
On Tuesday, Hossler’s father addressed his son’s arrest on TikTok.
“Hey Tik Tok folk,” Hossler wrote in a comment. “Thx for all the prayers for Jaden. Not gonna share a lot of details right now but Jaden and the boys are going to be ok. More later.”
Fans of Hall, Hossler, and Sway House started trending #FreeSway on Twitter in response to reports of the arrest. Several posted Hall and Hossler’s mugshots and booking information from the Lee County Sheriff’s website, while others expressed support for the duo.
According to E! News, Hossler has been released on bond, and Hall is expected to be released on bond soon.
A TikTok video of a woman refusing to get off a car after a parking dispute at the beach is going viral, with netizens now dubbing the woman “Parking Lot Karen.”
In the video, which was posted on Sunday, the woman can be seen reaching into the passenger seat window to grab the phone from the person recording. “Stop it,” she says. The girls in the car repeatedly ask her to “get off the car,” as she sits on the front hood. The woman says, “I’m not sitting on her car; I’m leaning on it.”
The woman appears to be upset over a parking spot. There is one spot visibly open, and the woman waves for the people she is with to park in it. After another spot opens up, the girls tell her that there are now two spots open and ask her to get off the car.
She refuses.
She eventually walks back to her car, which is out of view but presumably behind the car she was sitting on.
The video so far has over 17 million views and over 4 million likes.
Savannah Soares, @savsoares on TikTok, explained how the altercation started and what happened after in a follow-up video. She said that as she and her friend began to look for a parking spot at the beach, they pulled up behind a car that was at a full stop. Assuming they were waiting for something, the girls just went around and the cars behind her followed.
As they waited for a spot to open, the driver of the stopped car got out of the car and sat on the hood of the car and said that the girls cut in front of them while they waited for a spot.
@iamlaurencompton 
(@TheSanPlanet) 
