TikTok has a bullying issue

honestly, dont act surprised. if you've been on the app regularly in the last year and a half, it's pretty obvious. tiktok has a massive problem with cyberbullyong, and im getting tired of pretending it doesnt. 

firstly, a big reason for this is that people slowly but surely started idolizing the behavior. but how and why did this happen? well, for starters, a lot of people find ways to say their rude statements in  "funny" way, and on an app where most viral videos are comedic (intentional or not), this leads to people finding these rude comments and videos funny and giving them attention. the problem with this is, the nature of social media framing likes, views, comments, etc as a good thing has essentially pavlov dogged our brains into thinking "like/comment = boost in serotonin," so whether its subconscious or not, your brain sees the attention as a reward. this leads a lot of people to see the behavior that results in this "reward" as good behavior (it isnt), thus many people acting like it's "cool" or "iconic" to be an ass to others.

secondly, people would rather scold victims of bullying or anyone bold enought to against bullies, whether it's sharing their experiences or retaliating agaisnt a perpetrator, than hold the actual bullies accountable. people will see someone call out and make fun of awful behavior and be more worried about telling the victim or person standing up for the than the victim that they need to "be the bigger person" than actually holding the perpetrators accountable for their behavior. better yet, when someone speaks up about their experiences with bullying, people find it funny to justify it based on relatively harmless hobbies and/or traits of theirs. "they're a ______ fan, what were they expecting?" basic fucking decency, maybe??? imagine if you were being sent threatgs and harassment on a constant basis and when you finally speak up on it, someone brings up your favorite tv show as a justification for it? the only behavior that justifies bullying is bigotry, not a hobby or interest.

thirdly, tiktokers love to find any reason to blame bullying victims instead of holding the perpetrators accountable. when someone talks about being bullied online by either one person or a handful of people, it's always "just block them" as if making burners on that app is difficult. and they always conveniently forget to address what happens when the bullies manage to get a much larger group to join in on their harassment. cyberbullying isnt jiust comments and messages, it can be entire posts dedicated to making fun or insulting a given person or people, and posts are far more likely to get out there than an occasional comment or message. it takes maybe one or two posts getting a couple thousand views each for numerous people to form this hate-mob against a creator, and you cant possibly block thousands of people that fast. and even when it gets to that point, the excuse is "they can just make a new account??" like no, nobody should have to restart their platform just because you people havent been told the golden rule. 

Suicide mentioned next, here's a warning for those who need it.

lastly, the worst part abour all of this is that these people cant even find peace in death. sometimes, the bullying gets so bad that people will attempt to take their own lives, and even then people show no sympathy for the victims. if the attempt works, the person is called dramatic and should've had thicker skin. if it doesn't, people act like it's a "bummer" or accuse them of faking it for sympathy or attention, and people start cullying them for having tried, too. 

it doesnt help that tiktok users want so badly for people to stay on this app- whenever a victim of bullying (ESPECIALY of mob-harassment) says they might step down, people start guilt tripping them into staying as if there isnt a reason they wanted to leave. when you point out the issues regarding bullying on tiktok, someone downplays them by saying "well mean people are on every corner of the internet, and every website has its problems!! :]" which interestingly enough doesnt seem to apply when someone brings up wanting to use another website, because then they list out every goddamn issue with that other website just to make tiktok seem better. i think we'd genuinely all benefit from the app getting banned in the US, because most people are either moving to platforms where this behavior isnt tolerated or instagram (which i avoid like the plague).