by Reade Fenner ‘22

Recently, many misleading “facts” have been circulating on TikTok. In July, teenage user Makaila, @ohokaygirl, posted a TikTok spouting fake warnings about human trafficking. She claimed that traffickers were attaching zip ties to car door handles or rearview mirrors in order to distract young women. She explained that the zip ties could be used to distract or mark victims for capturing. Makaila claimed that she had learned this information from her mother and wanted to warn as many people as possible. Makaila’s video earned over 700,000 likes before it was taken down by TikTok for spreading false information. Many users, however, aware that these claims were false, made fun of her in the comments of her video, discussing other obviously fake warnings about human trafficking. 

This fabrication is not new, however. Warnings about zip ties on cars first emerged in October 2018 with images spread by a woman in San Angelo, Texas to warn other people about human trafficking. It turned into a meme and became famous on Twitter. The San Angelo Police Department eventually stated in a press release that they had not gotten any reports of human trafficking using zip ties.

Another falsehood that has been spread recently on TikTok relates to an election victory map of Donald Trump’s from 2016. Well, that’s what he claimed on Twitter in early October when he posted a picture of a map of the United States showing polling results that was mostly red, in favor of Trump’s election, with the words “try to impeach this” overtop. This was soon debunked by fact checkers such as the Washington Post. The map was not final, and many counties that appeared red ended up turning blue in favor of Hillary Clinton hours later. 

Unfortunately, the reports of this map being inaccurate didn’t quite reach some on TikTok. Teen Lydia Grace, @lydslgw5, posted a video on TikTok of this false map on October 25. Clearly unaware that this map had been proven incorrect, she danced in front of it, displaying her Trump 2020 t-shirt. In the background, Lydia used a sound with the lyrics “I’m going to vote Trump 2020.” 

Although she received many comments supporting the video, many also questioned the validity of this map. A significant number of TikTok users claimed it was actually a Verizon coverage map. Lydia made a TikTok responding to this rumor, showing that the Verizon map was completely different, but she didn’t discuss her map’s inaccuracy. Many creators even went so far as to make TikToks poking fun at her false map, using other random maps, such as one depicting the best fast food chains in each state, and slapping the words “try to impeach this” on them. 

Misleading myths such as these that emerge on TikTok raise a number of questions about how young users receive and process information. Will users be able to discern hoaxes from the truth? Can users rely on any TikToks to present accurate news? How will this affect users who develop their opinions regarding current events from TikToks they see?