For several months’ blogger and writer Jessamyn Dodd sat in the background on TikTok. She followed several popular gossip and drama pages and watched their live streams often engaging the chats taking place. She began noticing that the drama was escalating to dangerous heights. “I saw creators, and continue to see creators making videos bullying one another. And then I saw it move from the app into their real lives”. She continues, “At first I was like, don’t these people have anything better to do than to sit around making videos insulting people. Don’t they have jobs or families? Like, who sits in their basement livestreaming all day talking about people they hate. These are adults”.
But she saw something that made her sit up and take it seriously. ” I saw a man, a black man, get swatted. I saw him livestreaming police coming to his door. His children were terrified. And then another person, well a group of people went live and took credit for it for calling false police reports in!” In another instance she describes watching videos of a woman accusing a U.S. Navy member of sexual assault. According to the service member’s wife, the family has been harassed daily online. The service member has been cleared of any misconduct by the Navy.
Dodd wrote an article about the doxing and harassment she witnessed. “After the article came out, the people in question doxed me, threatened my child, and have made numerous videos and live streams attacking my race. They keep insulting me because I am biracial. It is really disturbing. “. The people in question that Dodd mentions have done exactly what her article illustrated and solidified all of the victim’s claims.
“I was always taught to stand up for what I believe in. I was always taught that one person can make a difference”.
