Tiktok has Led Conspiracy Theory Discussion Among Gen-Z By Bella J Reilly Amidst the 15-second dance videos and oatmeal recipes, there is a subgenre of TikTok full of bizarre speculations questioning everyone from political leaders to celebrities like Ellen Degeneres: they call it conspiracy TikTok. Yesterday morning, as I did my regular morning scroll through TikTok (arguably the most mind-numbing part of my day), a video uploaded by a user on September 12th appeared on my ‘For You’ page. The ‘For You’ page crafts videos you may want to see based on the posts you have previously interacted on. The video’s opening line is “Did you guys notice that almost every recent election year we have had a major virus outbreak from a foreign country[?]”. This person is ultimately claiming that major disease outbreaks are planned to influence elections. Then, pictures played over music from the swine flu in 2008, Ebola in 2016, and the current Coronavirus popped on the screen. The video has amassed over 300 thousand views and over 498 comments, most of which are users agreeing that the correlation between election years and outbreaks is far from a coincidence and was somehow planned by the Government. I scrolled through the comments of users referencing ‘Plandemic’– a documentary about the possibility of Covid-19 being orchestrated (which was essentially debunked by Science Mag), dumbfounded by the number of people who believed something just because of a popular TikTok. The ‘Plandemic’ is not the only conspiracy theory that has made its way onto Tiktok. A search of Hillary Clinton’s name on the app shows hundreds of videos spreading the popular theory ‘PizzaGate’ (the actual ‘#pizzagate’ hashtag has been banned on Tiktok). ‘PizzaGate’ refers to a concept involv-
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ing numerous Hollywood celebrities and politicians running a child sex ring (another theory debunked by numerous news sources such as The New York Times). As I see videos promoting topics like these almost daily, one thought prevails in my mind: are teens actually believing these theories, or is the discussion all in good fun? For some, it may be a mix of both. When asking Fordham student Gracie Kunik her take on the debate, she definitely does not fall trap to these theories easily. “I definitely do not think that I would believe anything on TikTok with 100% faith, but I do like hearing about them,” Kunik said. “I think with some Google searches you can find other sources and start to formulate your own opinion.” On the other hand, Fordham student Sophie Dreskin believes in a few conspiracy theories that have circulated around the internet. Specifically, she believes in the speculation that the website Wayfair is somehow involved in child sex trafficking– a theory that began on platforms like Twitter and Reddit but found their way to Tiktok. “I’ve really only heard about the idea through Tiktok,” Dreskin said. “But from
the evidence I’ve seen on there, I have reason to believe it’s possibly true.” Though the internet has its downfalls due to the surplus of information, fake or real, it isn’t going anywhere– especially Tiktok. According to Oberlo, the app has 800 million active users worldwide, 41% of those between the ages of 16 and 24. So, the best thing to do from this point on is, just like you would on any part of the internet, take what you read with a grain of salt. Frankly, most people discuss conspiracies because they find it interesting, not because they actually believe that Justin Bieber is a reptile or that Avril Lavigne died in 2003 and has a lookalike who pretends to be her. For now, most of us Gen Z-ers will keep using the app for its original purpose: entertainment.
Layout: Sophie Dreskin
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