When a lot of similarly annoying trends emerge from the same place, it can get a little too easy to make assumptions any time someone wrongs us in a bizarre way.
And right now, it seems that TikTolk’s reputation among parents and law enforcers is such that it’s inspired some imaginative explanations for why the more irresponsible youths in various communities are acting out.
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And in fairness, it’s not as if there’s no precedent for genuinely destructive trends that emerged from the platform. This year alone saw teens pound on their neighbors’ doors for the “heartbeat” challenge, as well as the “devious lick” trend that suddenly left schools without essentially bathroom and classroom supplies.
But as one recent story of widespread vandalism illustrates, that doesn’t mean TikTok can be blamed for everything.
On November 23, police in Massillon, Ohio posted this photo of a smashed fence on Facebook, which they attributed to clout-chasing teens.
According to Insider, similar incidents have taken place in New York City and Caldwell, Idaho over the last month, while WOWT reported that this was happening to fences in Omaha, Nebraska as far back as July.
As a representative from the Omaha Police Department said at the time, “The juveniles are likely videotaping themselves running through the fences.”
In each of these cases, the damage was believed to be the result of participation in the “Kool Aid Man challenge” supposedly circulating through TikTok.
Since the drink mascot’s signature move is to smash through walls while yelling “Oh yeah,” parents and police alike figured that it was an easy reference point for a challenge that would explain why so many fences were being smashed at roughly the same time.
When harmful trends of this nature emerge, TikTok’s response is generally to redirect any relevant hashtags to a landing page reminding users of the platform’s community guidelines.
According to Insider, those guidelines prohibit content that “depicts, promotes, normalizes, or glorifies” dangerous behavior and make a point of including “amateur stunts or dangerous challenges.”
And as we can see with the “devious lick” trend or the hazardous “dry scoop” practice that saw fitness TikTokers ingest undiluted protein powder, it’s often not long before videos depicting the trend start disappearing.
But this time, TikTok staff said they weren’t able to do this because there didn’t appear to be a trend to crack down on.
As a representative from the company told Insider, staff weren’t able to find any evidence of a “Kool Aid Man challenge” on their platform.
And while it remains unknown why people damaged 15 vinyl fences in Omaha back in July, Lieutenant Neal Bonacci of the OPD has since confirmed to Insider that “after an investigation, there was no evidence of the incidents being related to a TikTok challenge.”
So unless a Kool Aid Man challenge has been unfolding on a more obscure platform all along, it’s hard to rule these situations as anything but a series of coincidences.
h/t: Insider