The Auschwitz Memorial has criticized a trend on TikTok in which young people portray themselves as victims of the Holocaust, saying the videos can be hurtful and offensive.
Some of the videos were beyond the border of trivialization of history: The Museum
The victims trend on TikTok can be hurtful & offensive. Some videos are dangerously close or already beyond the border of trivialization of history. But we should discuss this not to shame & attack young people whose motivation seem very diverse. It’s an educational challenge.
The Museum
A new Victims or Holocaust or Trauma Porn trend has popped up on video sharing app TikTok in which users have shared clips of themselves with fake bruises, wearing clothes that Jews were ordered to wear by the Nazis that has prompted reactions ranging from outrage to disbelief. While the point of the trend seems to be educational, many people have called it out as offensive and tone-deaf at best, or disturbing and inhumane at worse.
The trend is heavily criticized, disrespectful and disturbing
It was initially dubbed Trauma Porn and involves TikTok users putting on make-up to make themselves look bruised or burned, and then pretending to be Holocaust victims sharing the story of their death from heaven.
The point of the trend, according to one 17-year-old participant was to educate people about the Holocaust. But most people on social media felt the videos trivialized something truly horrifying as an excuse to practice their makeup and acting abilities.
The memorial did its best to toe the line between explaining why this means of education is problematic and offensive to the victims, while asking followers to avoid vilifying, shaming and attacking the young people who may have done something in the wrong way. Of course, not everyone felt this way.
A TikTok spokesperson has told Newsbeat the platform’s top priority is keeping their community safe.
We preemptively blocked users’ ability to search for #holocaustchallenge earlier this week and we are also redirecting any searches for this hashtag to our Community Guidelines to further educate users. TikTok does not tolerate hate speech content that targets any individual or group on the basis of protected attributes.
TikTok Spokeperson
Source: BBC
