TikTokTrends Week: 6
Week of August 24
Hi!
Welcome to week 6 of TikTokTrends. Great to have you here again.
This week I will be talking about. #JacobBlake, #RNC and #RIPChadwickBoseman
Despite nationwide protests calling for an end to police brutality against Black communities, every week there is another tragedy, another person is killed by the police. This must stop.
#BLM
Let’s dive in.
Trigger warning: Disturbing imagery about Jacob Blake’s shooting.
#JacobBlake
The JacobBlake hashtag gained 27 million views in the five days following Blake’s shooting on the 24th of August, in Kenosha, WI. Blake, a father or three, was shot seven times in the back by police officers while opening the car door and leaning forward. The shooting triggered protests around the country and riots in the area. The shooting has left Blake, who is currently in a Wisconsin hospital, paralyzed.
On TikTok, there were two sets of videos that I saw under this hashtag. The first set was directly focused on Blake, either in support of or against the shooting. The next group of videos is mainly about the shooting that took place during a protest in support of Blake in Kenosha, where a 17-year-old shot and killed two people.
The Context:
The video above was created by Topher, a popular conservative content creator. It has been watched over one million times and is one of the more popular videos on Blake. The video starts with the captions: Jacob Blake was not innocent or unarmed.
In the first part of the video, Topher shows the headline of a news article that reads: Kenosha officer identified, investigators find knife in Jacob Blake's vehicle. When searched, I found this article to be from wdio.com, a local ABC affiliate TV station, based in Duluth, WI. After reading the headline, Topher says that “the knife in his possession was located,” suggesting that Blake was carrying a knife with him even though the headline doesn’t say that. There is conflicting information on whether Black actually had a knife. Wisconsin governor, Tony Evers, said that he has not seen any evidence of Blake carrying a knife, according to NBC Chicago. But the Kenosha police union, while describing the incident, said Blake was armed with a knife and forcefully fought with the officers. It was also recorded on video that police were yelling “drop the knife” however, Raysean White, the person who filmed the video, says he did not see a knife in Blake’s hand.
Topher later, seemingly goes further into the article by reading more information aloud. However, a quick Google search shows that he’s actually reading from a separate article by the Wall Street Journal. He reads a paragraph that explains that the police were called to Blake’s house after a 911 caller said Blake took a pair of keys and was refusing to give them back. He emphasizes the fact that police were called on Blake and skips the part of the article where Blake’s attorney explains that Blake was trying to de-escalate the situation with the caller when the police arrived.
Topher then goes on to name the police officer that shot Blake in the back, reading that law enforcement provided medical attention to Blake immediately.
He later seamlessly jumps back to the first article and reads a paragraph where it is explained that a knife was found on the driver’s floorboard of Blake’s car.
Finishing the reading, Topher summarizes what we have learned:
Police were called on Jacob Blake.
The police was informed about the arrest warrant en route.
When they got there, they tried to arrest him. He resisted, they tased him.
He got up and walked, they did not tackle him because he possessed a deadly weapon.
When he reached into the vehicle that is when they shot him.
The summary is not exactly what Topher talked about in his video. He never discussed the police learning about the arrest warrant, he did not mention anything about a taser being used, or anything about the police not tackling Blake because he was carrying a knife.
These summary points are the catch of the video. It makes people think that these points were explained with supporting facts; However, these are Topher’s opinions interlaced with some facts, which he delivers with conviction, making people who don’t know much about the incident believe the misinformation to be true.
The reason why the police did not tackle Blake is unknown, whether or not the police knew about his arrest warrants is also unknown. And as I discussed above, there is no concrete proof as yet of Blake carrying a knife with him. However, police being called on Blake is known, two of the police officers did fire tasers at Blake before shooting, and Blake being shot when he leaned into the vehicle is also an evident fact.
This is another example of the way conservatives showcase their opinions as facts, you can read more about this in my newsletter from last week where I go in depth about a video posted on Breonna Taylor’s death.
The right wing TikTok creators overwhelmingly are talking about the prior convictions (graphic video) of Blake. Explaining why the officers were called, the alleged rape accusations and why he was reaching in his car. Blake can be seen leaning into his car, but saying that he was reaching for something, is an opinion, not a fact.
Many on the left were focusing on the shooting, the racial disparity between how a black man is handled by the police versus how a white man is handled. A video of a white man walking aggressively towards police officers was shared, showing how police reacted in that situation. The police officers are seen trying to de-escalate the situation, and allowing the person to yell and wave the object in his hand.
Tying these two sets of videos together was the Kenosha Shooting, and that is where I saw a lot of the content on TikTok.
Kenosha Shooting
On Tuesday evening, during the protests following Blake’s shooting, Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, shot at three people — two of whom died— while claiming to protect a business in Kenosha from the protesters.
On TikTok, Rittenhouse’s shooting was debated more than anything, with many videos of misinformation that included Molotov cocktails being thrown at Rittenhouse. Other videos in support of Rittenhouse explain that he used his gun in self-defense. While liberal creators were focused on the actions that police took as Rittenhouse was walking away from the crime, allowing him to go home after he shot and killed two people and how the media covered both his and Blake’s shootings.
Rittenhouse is an Illinois resident, who came to Kenosha armed with an AR-15 along with a group of militia claiming they wanted to protect local businesses against the protesters. Liberal creators explained that crossing a border with a gun is illegal, however it was later explained by his lawyer that he did not own the gun, and did not carry it across states. Content creators also pointed out his age, and other gun restriction laws in the area.
Rittenhouse was arrested a day later for intentional homicide in Illinois.
Here is an NYT article on how the shooting took place.
What have journalists done on TikTok?
Well, I took a look at what journalists have said about these incidents. I was amazed to find that they have posted almost nothing. I did not do a deep dive into their content, however, I went through a list of journalists and media organizations on TikTok that was compiled by Francesco Zaffarano. Here is the list. I sorted the USA-based organizations and looked at all 61 of them that were on the list. There was only one TikTok post about Blake that I could find, and it was from NBC. The video shows Blake’s father talking to the crowd during the March on Washington.
In the upcoming weeks, I plan on looking deeper into how journalists use TikTok, and if I can find any individual journalists that aren’t on the list that have been making interesting content.
Did you see any journalists covering Jacob Blake or Kyle Rittenhouse on TikTok? If you have please reply to this email and send me a couple of links!
#RNC
This was also the week of the Republican National Convention. The hashtag RNC has over 37 million views. Most of the videos are of content creators filming their TVs while watching the RNC and adding some type of commentary to it. A lot of the content is satire, making fun of the six of the 12 speakers being Trumps and awkward moments of fear during the speeches. Other content was mainly geared to show off how great the RNC was.
The Context:
The most popular video on the hashtag was shared by Brut America, which is a newsroom that focuses on creating news content for social media. The 60 second video is a compilation of the new internet Meme that is Melania Trump’s bright green dress she wore to the RNC. A great video, but not very news-y.
Since bright green is frequently used in the movie industry to change a background, the dress was of course changed with numerous images ranging from an image of a virus cell to a picture with Trump and Jefferey Epstein.
Besides satire, Black Trump supporters have shared a lot of content on TikTok. This video was created by Clayton Keirns, and it shows Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, using a couple of Biden’s now infamous gaffes, saying “If you do not vote for me, you are not Black” and “There is no diversity of thought in the black community.” Ending with a sentence aimed at Biden, “You can’t tell me how to vote, because of the color of my skin.”
Clayton didn’t add much commentary other than saying “damn…” The video was watched almost 400,000 times, and the comment section seems to be on the same page as the Attorney General.
#RIPChadwickBoseman
Unfortunately, we lost a great actor this week. Famous for his role as the Black Panther, Chadwick Boseman, died at age 43, due to colon cancer that he had been fighting since 2016.
The Context:
The video above was shared by Twitch, the famous DJ from The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and was watched over one million times. It is a 15 second video of silence for Chadwick Boseman.
Generating 95 million views in two days, the hashtag was used by creators to celebrate and remember the actor. Many creators posted their emotions and disbelief, others, posted the iconic “Wakanda handshake” from the Black Panther movie.
In Other news:
TikTok CEO quits! Yes, Kevin Mayer has called it quits with TikTok this Wednesday. In an email to his employees, Mayer said he reflected on the changes that will be required to the global role he signed up for if the company is sold to a U.S. business. Given the mounting pressure on TikTok parent company Bytedance from the Trump administration and the expectation that a sale will happen soon, Mayer said he decided to leave the company.
Walmart buying TikTok?! This news came as a surprise for me, I can’t imagine having a Walmart logo when opening the app. However, many analysts think differently. This CNN analysis compares Walmart to the Chinese version of TikTok called Douyin, where they have used the platform to get user information for online shopping. “Users can ask influencers about products and get responses in real time, or they can click on steep discounts that are offered only in the apps.” TikTok is growing in the e-commerce world. More and more people are posting their sponsored content on the app in order to get more traction. Maybe a Walmart purchase would be great for the retail giant, but I’m not sure if I’ll enjoy it or not.
#MarchOnWashington was this week. People gathered in Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood 57 years ago, to talk about racial justice. The hashtag was viewed close to a million times on TikTok and most videos were from liberal creators at the event. Conservative content creators mainly focused on the crowd sizes, no social distancing and how protesting is allowed, while Trump’s rallies are not.
That’s all for this week, folks. Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and let me know if you think there’s an interesting TikTok trend I should be talking about! – Here is my Twitter!
See you next week!
A huge thank you to Nikitha Sattiraju for helping me edit this Newsletter!