ÉditionsVanIn

In May 2021, Adrian Lopez, 17, a high school student in Eastvale, California, posted a digital flyer on TikTok to invite his friends from school to Huntington Beach south of Los Angeles for his birthday party. The flyer indicated the time, location, and date of the party.

Yahir, 16, Adrian’s friend, posted the flyer too on Snapchat and on his personal TikTok account.

Many internet users found the invitation very funny. “Who is Adrian?” people commented. Famous TikTokers began to share the post and internet celebrities, youtubers and other social media influencers also posted about it. Soon the invitation became viral. The video with the hashtag #adrianskickback was viewed more than 280 million times.

At first, Adrian and Yahir thought the viral attention was fun. They enjoyed their 15 minutes of fame, but on Friday night, they began to get nervous. More and more people posted about flying in from around the country for the event and Adrian and Yahir no longer felt in control.

Finally, on the night of the event thousands of teenagers poured onto the beach ready for a party. Partygoers, tired of the covid lockdown, blasted music, danced, ran through the traffic and set off fireworks throughout the night until Huntington Beach police officials arrived.

When the police began trying to disperse the crowd, things turned violent. A police car was smashed, and some people threw bottles and other objects at the police officers. The police had to push the partygoers back and nearly 180 attendees were arrested.

This isn’t the first time a TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook event invitation goes viral on the web. Social media specialists say the number of invitations going viral is growing, especially among teen audiences.