I come from an era of social media since its inception. I guess you can say that I am showing my age which I don’t mind. I am a 35-year-old woman who resides in NYC.
My first encounter with a computer was America Online. Yes, it all started out as a CD that came into the mail. I asked my mother why they kept sending us music and she told me “It’s not for music. It’s to get on to the internet.”
The internet?
Yes, the internet. It began for me as a buddy list and a mailbox, which was exciting to say the least. Hearing “you’ve got mail” became a highlight of my day, even if it was an email thread about a Tupac Conspiracy or “Yo Mama” jokes.
I realized it was an addiction once you collected friends for your buddy list and then you were able to jazz up your profile with witty quotes and simple daily notes.
So, inception means, I watched this baby grow up and I took part of its rearing, until it fell down the wrong path.
I began noticing a trend of content creators who have blown up on platforms like TikTok and Instagram based on their intent of providing social justice by becoming creators who expose issues that are impacting the community.
Being able to have someone from a different city, state or country defend you and tell your story is cool when it has amazing intentions. When you have someone dragging you and revealing personal things about your life such as your workplace and business and then call for their following to assist in contacting your employer and disrupting their business, it leads down a path of destruction for all parties involved.
Let’s talk about the difference between Exposing and Doxing.
Exposing someone involves throwing a comment or content back at a hater. That’s reasonable. You call me ugly; I highlight the content and tell you that calling someone ugly is wrong, unfair and that it hurt my feelings in a video response to you. I win for having the confidence to put someone in their place, and then that person may think again about leaving a nasty comment on someone's social media.
Doxing someone, now that’s different because that involves doing an investigation on a complete stranger and digging into their personal life.
Facebook seems to be the first stop on everyone's investigation. You’re getting a real name or personal alias, you get to look at pictures, public posts, even find out where people work and who their friends are. Some of the more experienced researcher’s even hope to find an email address to attach it to other websites the user is signed up with, even down to court cases, arrests, past relationships and old tweets.
Boy, do they dig. But is it LEGAL?
One of the biggest arguments regarding the dox debate is that people really believe that because something is public information, that it can be used in Social Media’s Court of Law. However, this is not the case.
When I was 21 years old, I worked my “first real job” as a legal assistant for a Real Estate and Personal Injury Law Attorney in the Bronx. It was such an amazing yet frustrating experience. One of the things I had to learn was legal research. The internet was ripe, but it was not ethical to use Facebook as a means of gathering data for the court. It was a last resource and we also had to request permission to use Facebook as evidence as long as we were able to present the electronic findings in the court.
There were no “screen shots” and there were no “screen recordings”. It was bringing the device with that evidence and presenting it in chambers.
What makes social media so different?
We are in a digital world where vanity metrics rule the metaverse. Yes, you are in the metaverse and have always been. The metaverse, in my opinion, is when you bring things from a digital space to your real-life experience.
Your profile picture is your avatar because it is what users familiarizes users with your presence within that website or application. Even a slight change is noticed, and your biography tells people want YOU want them to know about you.
You are not known as your real name, unless specified. You are known as your username. You assume this identity. You can be Angel from Arkansas, but your username could be barbbabiiz16. Of the bat, I know you are a Nicki Minaj fan, probably underage and have not experienced real life and there is no reason for me to engage with you because I am not a fan of her music.
I sound like a hater. No, I sound like I have a personal preference of what I like playing from my playlist, which also okay.
So as a member of this digital world, it’s important that we discuss issues going on with social media, which is the culture of doxing, especially on TikTok.
As a black woman, gamer, podcaster I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I have been called a racial epithet. After a while, you become numb to it and realize that “trolls” feed off a response and I stopped responding to it. The block button works wonders and people don’t realize that.
They look at blocking unwanted content or creators as a sign of weakness.
It is not a sign of weakness to block someone who does not wish to engage with you and your content.
It is a sign of weakness of the bully/troll who tells their following that they were blocked from the negativity they were sending a complete stranger. Sadly, they also don’t realize that their following is playing them as well in this game.
When you are a person that is online frequently, you develop tough skin and begin to choose your battles wisely.
In 15 years, I only really experienced racism online when I dabbled in those spaces or placed myself in debates and conversations that would anger or trigger a racist. Presenting facts, better data and sources became exhausting after a while.
I began to realize that it is not my job to correct ignorance. It is my job to only defend those who cannot escape being bullied because of someone’s choice to be disrespectful and hurtful.
But here is where it got strange.
We live in a day and age where our voices matter more than it has before. We are either inspiring others or being envied for our solid backbones to stand up to uninformed comments of our cultures and history. Which was brilliant.
I looked at TikTok as space to learn about one another. A city girl like me had fun learning from other cultures from their food to hair to their special customs. It was meant to be admired, respected and noted.
I feel like we lost that spunk and here’s why.
Unfortunately, a darkness began surrounding this newfound way of educating one another. Celebrating different cultures became celebrating popular vultures.
Big time creators were under fire for not only stealing dances made popular by smaller black creators, but simply not giving them the credit for it.
I highly suspect that this was an intentional move by higher ups to begin the great divide because ever since these public incidents, although a fair assessment, it has been black vs white vs ALLY.
Basically, a digital race war.
During the pandemic, TikTok has launched many careers and small businesses. It was one of the most amazing sights to see especially during times where many people lost their jobs and were stuck in the house honing the skills they had to set to the side to work.
It was almost like witnessing magic in real time. Your dream could come true if good Samaritans donated just $1 or $5 to your cause with a community set goal.
People not only met their goals, but they also even got a little extra cash for just providing a great service which was their content.
When fans become sponsors, especially on a monthly basis, they feel a sense of a partnership with the creator where they will continue investing into their brand as long as they keep up with the content that got them hooked. Even if that means they get to suggest content or be featured as part of “the deal”.
There are no more fans in social media. There are fandoms.
What is a fandom?
Although this definition is broad, I will give you my thoughts of what I think a fandom is according to 2022.
A fandom is a group of people who are superfans of an interest or person who cyberbully outsiders of their guild as the creator or platform stands by and does nothing to remedy the events.
I have seen creators egg their followers on to attack people that were rude to them and then use information that they dug up on that person to create their monetized content. Which essentially is funding cyberbullying.
TikTok is no different.
Content creation on TikTok went from dancing and singing to doxing and dragging people for their personal views and opinions. Highlighting a person's ignorance to different cultures became a fad and educating became taking issues from the digital world and merging it real life consequences of a usually unnecessary amplified discussion.
A discussion that can become so heated that you even defending yourself pushes you further down the abyss of darkness. Putting your foot in your mouth is the goal. You have to then publicly apologize and then donate money to their cause, which is the hustle.
Social community websites were a godsend to those who wanted to have a more personal experience with their supporters which unlocked certain perks and recognition for their financial contributions.
From Patreon to OnlyFans, these spaces made it easy to present content to paying users with a tier system.
This was popular with gaming creators who wanted to have special perks for their paying viewers which included Discord. This allowed them to game with their fans and be on stream within a discord voice channel for their livestreams or recorded content for Youtube.
Win/Win situation for all parties but so much in this case, however.
Larger creators on TikTok have formed cult-like community funded spaces where the users invest into these platforms in hopes of being featured or recognized for their digging.
It almost feels like Reality TV on social media, the only difference is that it is not on television.
It’s the same shoddy business practices to get their viewers' attention to the scripted drama that unfolds in real time. Stories and narratives are being created as well as enemies and legal ramifications.
Social justice used to be a time where social media came together to hold individuals or businesses responsible for ill will within the community.
A public outcry meant avenues for media coverage and even they want a big fish from time to time.
It’s not even about releasing a story to help someone's voice reach the world simply by word of mouth. It’s about going viral for the creator.
Vanity metrics is just that. Vanity. They watch their views and likes and engagement like it is an illness. It probably is an illness because it is an obsession at that point. They begin to stalk other creators from burner accounts.
What are burner accounts?
According to TechWhoop, burner accounts are accounts that are created to protect the identity of the user while surfing the world wide web. (source: What is A Burner Account & How to Create One — TechWhoop)
Well, it used to be. It is now used for a more malicious intent these days, usually to help them get themselves out of sticky situations that they created. They use the account to watch creators they are worried of and some even stir up drama on an aged account.
An aged account is burner account that has general content that shows activity but no identifying markers. These are profiles that have been active for months or for years but raise no real alarm for the algorithm to pick up “trolling” activity. They usually have cartoon profile pictures and no real engagement, but they pledge allegiance to that fandom and report back to the hive or the hive that they run.
This also leads to the dreaded group chats those big creators are in where they organize and create beef with other creators that disagree with them. This is a grand coliseum, and we are all spectators.
Being a content creator has become more of an anxiety ridden experience for some. I have even read in comments where users have stated that they would never want to become a content creator simply based on the drama surrounding it.
One of my favorite movies growing up was Gladiator. The idea of groups of people spectating and witnessing the deaths of prisoners for entertainment made me feel that this is what was happening to us digitally online.
The prisoners face vicious animals in an enclosed arena which represents the users of the platform and because they face warriors dressed in armor with sharper swords, I consider the representing the big creators with a backing. The only difference is that it is life or death to your social identity.
You cannot correct them, critique them or even make suggestions to better their platform. Their followers look for anything that sounds a bit off, and then investigate everybody providing feedback.
Once your platform gets to that point, then congratulations, you have a CULT.
What is a CULT?
I read this really great article from Science Direct regarding the breakdown of how cults move and act. Cult membership: What factors contribute to joining or leaving? — ScienceDirect
However, in 2022, this has gone digital, and anybody can donate to the cause as long as they have a debit card.
These creators use tactics to even bully their own fans who question them, by threatening them behind the scenes and within these guilds. It is rather disturbing to see the great lengths that some of these young fans will go through just to be featured or mentioned as a valued supporter.
Recently, I began speaking out against creators who have been operating in this fashion because there are now allegations of a user on TikTok who tried to commit suicide based on organized cyber bullying as well as organized doxing on minors.
These are serious allegations, which is why I am pleading with the public to report these big creators to law enforcement.
These creators are using public information with malicious intent to harm people in real life. Your perspective on racism does not warrant anybody the right to post personal information online. Making an example out of one racist is not going to stop racism. Using your platform to educate is what does.
The question that I have for these creators is, what do you get out of this? What is the end goal? What do you do if platforms invest in better AI technology to rid toxic racists of these apps? What will you report then?
As a collective, we are generally tired of these topics. We don’t understand why we have to watch you drag people in intervals of 5-part 3-minute videos. We don’t understand why this needs to be a cross episode dragging other creators into the problems that you create. We also don’t understand how you can panhandle your followers and have them commit cyber crimes with their names and cities attached.
A popular creator who goes by the name AuntKaren0, crowdfunded over $20,000 from her supporters when she needed safety from the recoil of story that she reported.
She also stated to the supporters of this campaign that she would provide full transparency of the funds that were provided in order to get her to safety.
What supporters didn’t realize is that they crowdfunded a deadly weapon and it still didn’t even amount up to the original goal which was $5,000.
As the beneficiary of this particular campaign and not the organizer, this may cause problems for a creator who goes by Vanellope Von Addams who stated in this campaign that she was Aunt Karen’s best friend, although she admitted on video that she was her moderator in a private group.
It is unclear how much of a best friend Von Addams is to AuntKaren0 which is misleading to the public.
This is also mishandling of funds because a gun, gun training and upgrading security does not mean that you are safe.
Was law enforcement notified of these threats? Was there a police report filed and has it been followed up with? Have you kept your supporters up to date on the status of your safety? Has there been legal repercussions on the offenders who initiated “death threats”?
Also, knowing the dangerous waters that you continue to dip your toes into, why didn’t this threat deter you from this dangerous lifestyle that you decided to make into a career knowing that you have a family to care for?
It states in this campaign that you inconvenienced your twin sister's life by bringing danger to her doorstep, which is selfish on your part.
What security? A security system that is linked to law enforcement?
The bottom line here is that if this really was a “threat”, when law enforcement allegedly got involved, they would have had to collect evidence to support the fact that you have been threatened.
Also, you have another fund, Fundraiser by Aunt Karen : AuntKaren’s Legal Fund (gofundme.com)
For your legal defense in which you have still not let supporters know what you are doing with this money.
The rabbit hole begins with AuntKaren0 because it leads to deeper dark web like groups such as “The Woke Capone Crime Family”. There is also a petition to remove these creators on Change.Org.
There needs to be accountability starting with TikTok as a whole. This application has created stars as fast as they also destroy lives. It seems as if nobody is home to monitor this behavior and the users of the platform are begging for intervention.
The app is now dark, angry and filled with oversensitivity, controversy, bots and trolls.
These creators are destroying the experience and turning this space into a battlefield for literally no reason whatsoever besides needing to manipulate people online because they cannot express themselves in real life.
I don’t see leaders here. I don’t see “Social Justice Warriors” here. I see hurt people looking to hurt people for the sake of views. I see people who only look for opportunity instead of wanting real change.
The question here is, do you REALLY want to see racism go away being that it is literally funding your lifestyles? If racism magically disappeared tomorrow, what would you do? What niche would you have?
The people of social media are asking you to go away so that we can free up the timelines for smaller creators to present real stories and push unity.
If you are not with that, then that sucks because we have literally given you so many chances to right your wrongs. Now, we ask the media to help amplify OUR voice to tell you all to go away.
MXC.
