TikTok, the video-sharing app, most of which are voice-overs of film dialogues and songs, has emerged as one of the most influential social networking apps. If you see some of the videos, you’d know how the reach of the Chinese app is so far and wide that even someone from a remote village in India could become a popular content creator.
Amidst this, a disturbing trend is emerging on TikTok. Recently, a popular TikTok ‘influencer’, Hasnain Khan, shared a video. In the shocking video, Khan is seen with four other ‘influencer’ friends of his saying, “you may have killed that innocent Tabrez Ansari, but tomorrow if his son takes revenge, do not say that all Muslims are terrorists.”
https://twitter.com/singhvarun/status/1147541706490777603?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Khan seems to have deleted his video from his TikTok account.
Khan has 12.6 million followers. His videos are viewed by millions every day and hence, the reach of his video calling for revenge for Tabrez Ansari’s death cannot be passed off lightly. In a day when a WhatsApp rumour almost led to riots in the heart of national capital, the power of social media influencers cannot be downplayed.
22-year-old Tabrez Ansari was brutally beaten up by a mob in Jharkhand on 18th June on accusations of theft. Four days later, he died in police custody.
Most of Khan’s videos are film dialogues and songs and it appears as if he is quite a film buff. In one of the videos, he is seen with actor Ajaz Khan, who had said he would choose Quran over the Constitution and was recently arrested for possession of drugs.
The other men in the group had also shared same Tabrez Ansari’s revenge video on their respective profiles.
https://twitter.com/Rajput_Ramesh/status/1147821525359181824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
However, these videos are now deleted.
One of the users, ‘Mr Faisu’, had shared a video with Hrithik Roshan where he was invited during a promotional event for his upcoming film Super 30.
He has over 24 million followers on TikTok. The call for violence and to avenge Tabrez’s death went to 24 million people at one go.
Another TikTok user with over 7 million followers had shared the video to justify ‘revenge’ for Tabrez’s death.
These group of TikTok ‘influencers’ regularly meet up filmstars, who use these influencers to help promote and market their films.
TikTok has been in news for bizarre reasons. A woman had committed suicide after her husband scolded her for spending too much time on TikTok. A woman was reunited with her estranged husband after 3 years after she found him on TikTok.
There has been a lot of politics over Tabrez’s death. However, the new trend of call for violence and justification of the same is quite disturbing.