TikTokTrends week: 12
October 5th - 11th
Welcome to week 12 of TikTokTrends!
This week we’ll be talking about #VPdebate, #JewsForTrump, and #TheFly.
Let’s start!
#VPdebate
Kamala Harris and Mike Pence went head to head in an hour and a half vice-presidential debate last week. It was widely regarded as being boring and uneventful. I suppose living under a Trump presidency means politics has to mirror reality TV to be interesting. Normal political discussions just don't cut it anymore. There were some memorable moments throughout the debate, especially Harris’ “I’m talking” statement which has since become widely trending on social media.
The video above, posted by CBS News, shows the moment at which Harris told Pence that she was talking, denying him the chance to cut her off. The video was watched over six million times on TikTok, gaining more than 1.5 million likes.
On a side note, a growing number of news organization’s TikTok videos are becoming trending on the platform. Interestingly, it's almost never one of the ‘funny’ videos journalists are posting on TikTok, but it is generally the more newsworthy clips that are gaining popularity.
During the debate, Harris said “I’m talking” to Pence on three separate occasions. It was reported by CBS News that Pence interrupted Harris 10 times, while Harris interrupted Pence five times. Pence spoke 38 minutes to Harris' 35 minutes.
Similar to the presidential debate, the vice-presidential debate was also livestreamed by many TikTok users. However, Republican users were seemingly uninterested in it. Of the 90 conservative accounts I follow on TikTok, only one was livestreaming and commenting during the first hour of the debate. The number stood at 20 during the presidential debate. Meanwhile, on the democratic side, 15 of the 80 accounts I follow were livestreaming the vice-presidential, the same number as with the presidential debate.
Still, the debates were a trending topic amongst both conservative and democratic content creators. Conservative creators can be seen focusing on Harris’ false claim that Abraham Lincoln did not nominate a Supreme Court justice. Democratic content creators were seen focusing on Harris saying, “I’m speaking” and of course, the now-infamous fly that landed in Pence’s hair, which brings us to our next topic.
#TheFly
The fly that landed on Mike Pence’s head during the vice-presidential debate has become the main talking point of the debate. It dominated news headlines while Twitter users mocked Pence for not noticing. Biden’s team turned it into campaign material and TikTok users wasted no time in creating an account called DebateFly. So, we have to talk about it.
The video above, which has the fly on Pence’s head dancing with an Ocean Spray cranberry juice bottle, was created by an account called “ctr_haha.” It garnered over 6 million views, and close to a million likes. The video has the song "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac playing in the background. The song was popularized recently on TikTok when Nathan Apodaca used it in a video of him riding a skateboard and drinking Ocean Spray cranberry juice. Apodaca’s TikTok got so popular, Ocean Spray reportedly bought him a truck.
The Biden campaign was quick to jump on the opportunity and created both a website, flywillvote.com, and a fly swatter to make fun of the incident. Biden also posted an image of himself holding a fly swatter on Twitter. Of course, the conspiracy theorists were on it, claiming that the fly was photoshopped and that it was all planned by the Biden campaign.
#JewsForTrump
This week in New York City, Governor Cuomo and Mayor Bill DeBlasio created a new plan to stop the spread of Covid-19. The plan focuses on limiting the spread in parts of Brooklyn and Queens which recorded spikes in Covid-19 cases. DeBlasio announced on Sunday, Oct. 4 that the city will be closing all non-essential workplaces in hotspots after Wednesday. Cuomo tweeted a map where Red, Orange, and Yellow colors showcased the severity of the lockdown.
The Orthodox Jewish community, which lives in many of the zip codes that were hit hardest by the new wave of Covid cases, protested the decision on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
The video above was taken in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, showing what appears to be a Sukkot celebration. The protests in Borough Park got a lot more intense. Videos of unmasked protesters burning masks and being shoved by the NYPD were seen all over social media. During the protests in Borough Park, journalists were attacked, and a counter-protester was injured.
Social media users shared videos of Harold “Heshy” Tischler, a prominent social media figure known for his pro-Trump stance and a candidate for New York City Council, leading the protests late Tuesday night in Borough Park. “You are my soldiers! We are at war!” he announced, rallying the protesters.
On Wednesday night, Tischler was seen yelling at a reporter who was cornered by a crowd of mostly unmasked men. Jacob Kornbluh, a Hasidic Jew and a political reporter at Jewish Insider, was videoed asking Tischler, unmasked, not to spit on him as he yells in his face.
Tischler was also videoed using racial slurs and name-calling DeBlasio’s wife during the protests and attacking Andrew Cuomo and DeBlasio as well.
On TikTok, videos of the burning masks and protests with Trump 2020 flags were shared, with many Trump supporters creating content in support of the protesters. The videos were shared using #Jewishlivesmatter and #JewsForTrump.
In Other News
The halt to the download ban has been appealed. This week the federal government appealed the ruling that halted the Trump administration from banning TikTok downloads a couple of weeks ago. So far, we don’t know if the Trump administration will continue with the download ban, but the November 12 deadline for TikTok to make a deal with a US partner remains in place. Oracle and Walmart are aiming to partner to own 20 percent of the company. However, the deal has not yet been finalized.
TikTok is celebrating the 80th birthday of John Lennon. TikTok has created an account for John Lennon and has shared 11 of his songs for the TikTok community to enjoy and be creative with. The company announced earlier this week, the hashtag GimmeSomeTruth was also started “in recognition of the 1971 protest song co-produced with Phil Spector and also featuring former Beatles bandmate George Harrison on guitar.’
That is all for this week! Please share this newsletter if you enjoyed reading it. And don’t be shy to send me an email about what you think I should cover, or if I have missed anything. - Here is my Twitter!
Thank you for reading, hope to see you next week!
A huge thank you to Nikitha Sattiraju for helping me edit this Newsletter!