WEBVTT - Devious Licks and Manufactured Danger 0:00:05.080 --> 0:00:11.400 Oh yeah, it could happen. Here the only podcast that 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:14.640 is on right now in your ears where you can 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:18.280 listen to us talk about things falling apart and occasionally 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:22.320 more optimistic stuff. Garrison, is this one of the more 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:26.400 optimistic stuff days? Not really, Oh great, it's it's things 0:00:26.400 --> 0:00:29.760 falling apart, but in a slightly amusing way. Oh well 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:32.400 that's fine too. Yeah, it's it's it's gonna be fine. 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:37.560 So have is any is any of y'all's familiar with 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:44.320 the Devious Licks? Vaguely? Yeah, so all of all of 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:45.920 I'm sure all of the I'm sure all of the 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:48.479 Lick fans are gonna be really excited about today's episode 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:51.400 because the first half will be we'll be talking about 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:55.720 all of the all of the Licks. So for for 0:00:55.880 --> 0:01:00.480 those unfamiliar the Devious Licks meme challenge. Things started with 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:04.720 this video by a kid who had stolen quote unquote 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:07.440 stolen a bunch of like COVID masks from his school 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:13.119 and then was showing off his uh his harvest on 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:16.319 TikTok played over you know, played over a song or 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:20.000 something as as you do on the tiktoks. So they 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:23.080 posted the video with this caption. A month into school 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:29.160 absolutely devious lick and lick. I think lick just means 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:31.840 like stealing, like like you like stole something and like 0:01:31.959 --> 0:01:35.120 that's like that is a lick. I was so sad 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:37.280 when I first heard about this. I heard I heard 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:40.160 someone say devious licks, and I was like, they're like, oh, 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:42.680 the TikTok challenge, and I was like, oh shit, people 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:45.120 are like walking up to like like they're gonna like 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:47.120 lick the under side of a bridge or something. And 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:50.600 then it was not that unfortunately, unfortunately not. Yeah, it is, 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:55.080 it is. It is a real loss. So this this 0:01:55.200 --> 0:02:00.240 video went very very viral on TikTok very very quickly 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:03.880 among kids whom's like they're in person. School had just 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:07.080 had just started. This was this thing in like late August, 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:11.560 early September of last year, uh, you know, first with 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:15.920 you know, the initial video then subsequently inspired a bunch 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:20.440 of copycat school related heists that then posted into TikTok's 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:25.040 first People just stealing like small, mostly low stakes things, 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:28.560 usually inside the bathrooms, you know, stuff like toilet paper rolls, 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:33.760 paper tower rolls, soap from soap dispensers, light bulbs, you know, 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:40.200 like like floor tiles, just like just like small things. 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:43.240 But after a while the small fry wasn't was not 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:48.400 enough anymore. People started to get more brazen, uh more, 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:53.040 more more devious, you might say, Yeah, they were. They 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:57.440 moved on to like full on toilet heists and you know, 0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:02.760 electric hand tryers. They stole a teacher's entire desk and 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:09.359 a whole bathroom sink. So yeah, and eventually they kind 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:12.320 of dropped all pretense of this being hoisting and just 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:17.639 started just like destroying the bathrooms, not even stealing things anymore. Yeah, Garrison, 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:19.160 you and I have a friend who works at a 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:21.280 school where this has been We got accused of like 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:24.960 pushing disinformation when we talked about this on Worst Year, 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:26.600 but it's like, no, we know people who work at 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:30.160 a school that has not had functional student bathrooms. Happened, 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:35.440 and it's very funny, as just just just to clarify 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:40.240 my opinion on it, very funny. Yes, it's yes, they 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:43.560 but yeah, just just it started. It started with stealing 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:46.920 and then just Scott turned into let's just destroy the bathrooms, 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:53.160 which is pretty funny. Kids rock, Kids rock. So obviously, schools, 0:03:53.240 --> 0:04:00.320 teachers and principles were scrambling their confusion only upseeded, uh 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:04.240 by their being upset because obviously they shouldn't have allowed 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:06.800 children to be born into a world where TikTok could exist. 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:09.760 Really is on them, And you know, all of the 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:13.920 upsettedness by teachers and schools only like contributed to the 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:16.960 meme with like kids posting their principles reactions to it. 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:20.359 You know, like like people like like announcing over the intercom, 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:24.160 like like new rules about how to prevent the bathroom destruction. 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:28.400 Schools are having to like station staff members outside of 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:31.400 bathrooms to like like check and hopefully like ward off 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:35.520 any possible destructive shenanigans. It was, it was this, It 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:38.080 was it was this entire thing. Uh. And it got 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:40.440 to the point where TikTok actually had to step in 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:43.440 to kind of curb this meme. They banned the hashtag 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:46.400 dvos slick. They took down any content that had anything 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:49.560 to do with the trend, and this seemed to work. 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:53.360 After a few weeks, the meme kind of reached the 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:57.320 end of its virality cycle. Teachers got to breathe a 0:04:57.400 --> 0:05:00.680 sigh of relief. Maybe there would be no more smashed 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:08.840 bathrooms or stolen desks, you fools, But their calumn did 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:13.080 not last long. By the end of September, there were 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:18.840 rumors perculating around that Devious Slicks did. Yeah, I got 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:25.800 perculating percolating. Come on, I don't know, but it was. 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:27.719 It was, It was, it was. It was said that 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:29.760 the Davious Slicks may not have a wooden stick through 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:33.200 its heart, and we may have only witnessed the first wave. 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:37.719 With something much darker lurking around the corner. On Facebook, 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:42.040 various parent, teacher and law enforcement groups started circulating some 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:49.080 purported sorry started circulating some purported Shenanigan plans from the kids. 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:53.760 On TikTok, there was this month by month calendar detailing 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:56.920 two kids what sick pranks they should play on their 0:05:56.920 --> 0:05:59.599 school for the for the entire rest of the year, 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:03.760 and a few versions of this calendar were spread around, 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:06.520 but they all shared the same basic overall structure and 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:09.960 prank ideas, just some like wording and phrasing changed. And 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:14.360 the first upcoming challenge for the month of October was 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:20.120 slap a teacher Sorry. This spread beyond Facebook and including 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:24.880 to local news. Now another TikTok challenge getting a lot 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:28.520 of attention tonight, and it's a violent one. Targeting teachers. 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:32.280 That Nevada Joint Union superintendent asking parents now to tell 0:06:32.320 --> 0:06:35.479 their kids not to participate in this challenge. It encourages 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:39.200 students to actually slap their teachers. So although the smack 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:41.360 a teacher line was what really got this thing to 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:46.200 go viral on Facebook, the main screenshotted calendar that was 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:51.000 being circulated, the actual October challenge was listed as a 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:54.200 smack of staff member on the backside. That was that 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:58.280 was the actual phrasing, which is a little, a little 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:03.720 bizarre smack of staffer on the backside. Uh. November is 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:10.480 kiss your friend's girlfriend at school, So again weird, weird phrasing. 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:14.720 December is deck the halls and show your balls in 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:19.480 school halls, which that one was probably written by a child. 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:25.080 But then we get other stuff like January is jab abreast, 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:30.640 uh so more more sexual assault jokes. February we have 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:34.160 a mess up school signs. March is make a mess 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:38.760 in the courtyarder cafeteria. April this one's weird. April is 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:42.520 a grab some eggs, but eggs is in quotation marks 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:46.960 with his z at the end. May is ditch day. 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:50.400 That's fine. June is flip off the front office, Okay, 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:54.160 who cares? And July is spray and April's fence wow 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:58.120 graffiti scary. So yeah, that is that is that is 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:03.800 the calendar of challenges. Some of these seem more I mean, 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:06.560 we talked about this a couple of months ago, and 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:09.960 my feeling was that this started as something real, just 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:13.720 like m yeah and and this this ship was where 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:16.600 it was. It became nonsense. Was just like people sharing 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:19.200 things that were going to anger boomers. This and we 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:23.280 will we will get into this. So yeah. As as 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:26.360 news about the TikTok challenges spread on Facebook, media, orgs 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:28.720 picked up on the trend and started showting out headlines 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:33.280 like TikTok's shocking school Challenges list twenty twenty one revealed 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:38.120 and devious licks asks students via TikTok to smack a 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:43.040 staff member that nation's teachers are feeling burnt out. So great, 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:46.880 great headlines there. So all of that sounds so obviously 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:50.439 very scary. If if if teens around the country are 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:56.240 all united in this, in this, in this planned destruction 0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:59.680 of our entire civilization, that that you know, we could 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:03.840 all be brought onto the brink of via teens destroying 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:06.199 their schools was so that would be that would be 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:09.000 kind of fun. But if you stop and think about 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:11.319 the wording of that list for a sec, you might 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:14.320 notice some things that just seem off, Like no Gen 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:18.000 Z kids are saying uh smack a staff member on 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:23.320 the backside. That is not like you are the first 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:28.880 member of Generation Z to say backside, backside. And like 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:32.920 the challenge for April is grab some eggs and eggs 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:35.240 in quotation arcs with a Z at the end, because yeah, 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:37.640 all of all of the cool kids today uses Z 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:40.920 at the end of words to make themselves. Again, it's 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:45.720 some like fucking gen X or maybe elder millennial piece 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:48.240 of shit trying to make people angry on the internet. 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:56.160 And he's just like April, what goes with April? April eggs? Eggs? Yeah, 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:59.000 I don't know. Something like all of the language feels 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:02.160 like what's what someone would write if they were trying 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:04.720 to imitate what a cool nineties kid would talk like 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:07.679 on TV. Yeah, it's a lot of people trying to 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:13.319 write John Hughes movies. Yeah, but so, but all this 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:15.920 was very viral for like it was the end of September. 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:17.839 This was this was all massive and we we will. 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:20.320 Don't worry. I will explain why we're talking about this 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:22.439 now because this does this, this will circle back to 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:25.480 actually current events. I'm not not just talking about a 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:28.559 September twenty twenty one trend. This, this does, this does 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:33.640 relate to stuff happening currently. But yeah, like suspicious language aside. 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:37.160 The idea that the youths are purposely plotting on the 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:40.400 tiktoks to assault teachers and we havoc all year long 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:43.959 frightened many an adult, especially those that work in the 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:47.520 education sector, who might have to face the possibility of 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:51.040 a coordinated zoom er wrath. And you know, the past 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:52.880 two years had already been kind of a ship show 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:55.480 for schools, with switching to remote learning then back to 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:58.240 in person. Well, there's all all debate, all the debate 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:01.520 around masks and vaccinations and the risk of being inside 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:05.200 around densely packed you know, groups of filthy, germ written children. 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:08.000 Plus there's all these kids that got used to being 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:10.720 home alone for so long learning half to like having 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:13.080 to learn now how to like socialize in the class environment, 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:16.520 all while dealing with the same mental trauma that we've 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:20.240 all been dealing with around around the plague. So so, 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:24.600 just having faced the actual, very real September devious licks, 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:28.120 the promise of a year lowing TikTok wave of destruction 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:32.240 obviously frightened many parents and teachers, with educators on Facebook, 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:35.160 you know, starting to take this list as a very 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:39.160 real threat, with school districts you know, issuing warnings and 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:42.480 parents were you know informed, like in mass about this 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:47.680 very very real, very real threat. Educators be aware. That's 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:51.160 the warning from the California Teachers Association. The group sent 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:54.600 this message to educators letting them know about a potential 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:58.120 TikTok trend calling for students to slap a staff member. 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:01.720 Seminole County Schools just sent this letter to principles warning 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:05.559 them of TikTok's October challenge, saying, quote, in the latest 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:09.200 TikTok trend, students are asked to calmly walk up to 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:12.280 their teachers, slap them, and then run off, making sure 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:25.680 they capture the whole thing on camera. Okay, and we 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:30.320 are back. So yeah, sure enough. News of teachers getting 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:35.160 slapped began to circulate from local media into the national sphere, 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:40.280 alongside headlines like TikTok inspired slap a Teacher challenge assault 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:45.200 reported at Braintree's East Middle School and Covington police say 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:53.319 disabled teacher injured and suspected TikTok challenge assault by student. Uh. Yeah, 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:55.439 so there was there was, There was a There was 0:12:55.480 --> 0:13:00.000 a few slapping incidents reported onto mainstream onto mainstream news 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:03.600 was all all tied to the to the TikTok assault. 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:08.040 A teacher things as student in Louisiana was arrested and 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:11.160 faced felony charges, with police saying the assault was prompted 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:14.719 by a quote prompted by a viral social media application 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:21.079 known as TikTok. Sorry we've done the notorious hacker for 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:29.280 chat again. Everything circles back application known as TikTok. So yeah, 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:32.320 in October, there were definitely incidents of students hitting teachers, 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:36.599 But it's like that that in and of itself is 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:40.559 not up for debate. This, yes, uh, but the actual 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:44.640 scale of content spreading this list and the subsequent slapping 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:49.160 videos on the TikTok platform is something to question because 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:52.240 writing writing off of the September Davious licks trend, almost 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:56.880 all media, police, parents, educators were super quick to link 0:13:56.960 --> 0:14:01.400 this list and these few teachers kings to the social 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:05.840 media platform used by gen Z, the application known as TikTok. 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:08.760 And so we we have we have all this talk 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:11.320 on the news and on Facebook. But the thing is, 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:14.920 if you check TikTok or at like if if if, 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:17.640 if you're actually on TikTok around this time, you wouldn't 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:21.480 find any viral videos. So teachers getting slapped or anything 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:25.800 about this TikTok list of challenges at all. It wasn't 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:28.080 actually there, like, it wasn't actually on TikTok. This this 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:32.000 wasn't actually a thing. H So you know, then you know, 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:34.120 you might be thinking, well, maybe TikTok's doing what they 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:37.840 did previously just to shut down the original organic deviously challenge. 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:40.640 What if they're just doing this like preemptively to taking 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:45.520 down any content related to the list, any like corresponding hashtags, etcetera, etcetera. 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:48.680 But when journalists asked TikTok if this was the case, 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:51.680 they denied this, saying that we have not seen anything 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:55.920 of this nature on our app. They said the first 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:58.280 time they TikTok said, the first time they saw the 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:01.800 list was of screenshot of it on other websites. It 0:15:01.280 --> 0:15:04.240 was not it was not from TikTok. It wasn't actually there. 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:08.320 So as more and more news circulated and Blaine was 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:11.200 continuing to be put on TikTok for propagating this list 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:16.440 of challenges and you know, encouraging teacher assaults, the social 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:19.800 media platform made a public statement addressing the issue, saying, quote, 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:22.360 the rumored slap a teacher dare is an insult to 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:25.800 educators everywhere, and while this is not a trend on TikTok, 0:15:25.880 --> 0:15:28.920 if at any point it shows up, content will be removed. 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:32.000 So as as much as you would search online on 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:35.120 TikTok or you know, wherever, you wouldn't find any evidence 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:38.080 of this list actually being spread through TikTok at all. 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:41.080 The only thing that you would find about this on 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:45.520 TikTok is either kids reacting to news clips talking about this, 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:49.320 or teachers on TikTok complain anywo this as well. It 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:54.720 wasn't actually a trend. The list was being shared online 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:58.800 a lot like it was very viral, but almost exclusively 0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:03.880 in Facebook groups for boomers or adults or teachers or police. 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:09.200 But people seemed real scared of all those groups. Boomers Garrison, Okay, 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:12.600 that good not died. Yeah, it's it's it's it's like 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:22.440 a mental ethnicity. Now people, people seem really scared. You know, 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:25.840 schools were scared. News media loves turning this list into 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:30.200 like a looming looming Bilgeeman. But it wasn't. It wasn't 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:33.200 kids actually spreading it or turning into a challenge, which 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:35.360 leads you to wonder where did this even come from 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:39.600 and how did it actually get so viral. So multiple 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:43.480 and multiple fully separate investigative kind of ordeals into the 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:48.160 alleged TikTok list of challenges placed its original point of 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:51.600 virality in the hands of of wait, wait for it, 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:56.960 wait for it, I'm waiting a police officer. So Officer 0:16:57.120 --> 0:17:01.240 David Gometz, a school resource cause up who runs a 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:05.639 popular Facebook page under the banner of quote the Truth 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:11.560 about Youth, which is oh boy, pretty cool. So Gomez 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:15.960 works at a school in Idaho, Big shocker, and back 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:19.600 in September, his Facebook page had over thirty three thousand followers. 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:23.680 Now it has over sixty six thousand, and he uses 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:27.240 it as a sort of information hub for parents, educators, 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:31.680 and concerned citizens to talk about the dangers of kids 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:34.879 on the Internet and all of that jazz. You know, 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:37.600 Gomez basically tries to be like a kind of like 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:41.920 influencer for this whole like concerned adult corner of the Internet. 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:45.760 He writes these long, long posts about like school life 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:49.240 and digital safety, touching on many topics from like how 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:53.000 your kids are secretly buying weed and vape pens, or 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:54.920 like how to tell if your kid is looking at 0:17:54.960 --> 0:18:01.040 pornographic materials, you know, stuff of this nature like here, here's, 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:03.639 here's here's a few posts from him from from just 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:07.800 from just a few days ago. Lots of inappropriate behaviors 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:14.560 pushed on Snapchat desensitize kids to reality. Nude photos, drugs, parties, crimes, 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:19.840 et cetera. Kids can order almost any illegal drug and 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:23.120 have it delivered to them on most any place on Snapchat. 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:28.240 If only only so, He's like, he's like one of 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:33.840 these types of guys, like you know, you know who, Yeah, yeah, yeah, God, 0:18:33.840 --> 0:18:35.920 if we only lived in that world, I would be 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:40.439 on Snapchat so hard I would be. I love I 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:45.359 love idea that Snapchat desensitizes kids to reality by telling 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:51.520 them about parties and well, I mean any time I look, 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:54.560 I have a profound negative mental health reaction whenever someone 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:57.560 tells me about a party. So I would why wouldn't children? 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:03.200 So so the original devious licks challenge was dying down 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:06.840 near the end of September. On September twenty second, Officer 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:10.960 Gomez posted this list of challenges to his thousands of followers. 0:19:11.640 --> 0:19:13.879 In the next few days, the challenge list from his 0:19:13.920 --> 0:19:18.399 page circulated around the web, prompting many nervous school emails, 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:22.199 terrified newscasts, and ending up actually making the list of 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:26.080 challenges go completely viral. When asked about the origin of 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:28.520 the list, he said the first place that he had 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:31.919 seen it is in a smaller private Facebook group for 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:36.359 people working in drug and alcohol enforcement and education. He 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:39.080 called it a drug recognition group. It's like a group 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:42.040 of like cops and stuff, where like, I found this 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:45.960 bag of leaves, what is it? Can I can I 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:48.680 arrest this person? It's like it's it's it's these people 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:51.840 who like, yeah, post random stuff to figure out what 0:19:51.920 --> 0:19:55.400 drugs they're looking at. So he claims he first saw 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:59.080 it in this Facebook group, but admitted that he was 0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:02.400 unsure if it'd actually alternated from kids or not let 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:05.760 let alone on TikTok. He just posted it because he thought, 0:20:06.359 --> 0:20:10.720 you know, better safe than sorry, But you know, it's 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:14.120 it's funny because Officer Gomez's intention may just have been 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:16.119 to spread the word about this because he thought it 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:18.400 was an actual threat, but it turns out that he 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:20.240 was just the one that gave it online life in 0:20:20.280 --> 0:20:24.679 the first place. So so yeah, But for like the 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:27.080 actual origin of it, like like for it actually came up, 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:30.119 as best as we can tell, it seems to. It 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:34.320 seems to have stem from a school in California. A 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:38.680 principal claims that a student sent them this list, albeit 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:41.879 a slightly more a vulgar version, more in line with 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:44.920 how kids kind of talk now. The teacher then uploaded 0:20:44.920 --> 0:20:47.520 it to a teacher Facebook group. It was then shared 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:50.400 to this drug recognition group of Officer Gomez, and then 0:20:50.480 --> 0:20:54.080 Gomez or someone along this process rewrote it to add 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:57.720 the weird like boomer Jen's like like like a nineties 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:01.720 cool kid language, and then go has posted it, and 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:05.440 then that results in like the cool kid's attitude, and 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:08.679 then he posts it, it goes viral. But there's no 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:10.680 evidence that it was ever on TikTok like at all, 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:13.439 Like this, we just don't I think it's not actually 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:17.800 ever on TikTok until the cop posts it So the 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:20.760 other funny thing is that all of these slapping incidents 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:23.600 reported on the news, including the one that resulted in 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:26.439 an arrest, also turns out to have nothing to do 0:21:26.480 --> 0:21:28.399 with the challenge list or TikTok. It was just a 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:31.240 regular like interpersonal conflict between a student and a teacher, 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:34.920 because like that happens, like that happens just like every 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:38.200 once in a while like that. But it had nothing 0:21:38.240 --> 0:21:41.600 to do with TikTok. According to the school and according 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:45.800 to the police, we had an investigation. A substitute teacher 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:47.800 choke slam one of the kids in my class, and 0:21:47.960 --> 0:21:50.320 we didn't even have a TikTok. We barely had the 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:53.720 internet back then. It was a pretty good day at school. 0:21:54.359 --> 0:21:56.359 The principle had to come in and apologize. It was 0:21:56.440 --> 0:22:02.800 very fun. That sounds great. It was yeah, so uh 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:07.440 so yeah, Like in the end, we're gonna the full 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:10.000 arc of this right starts in September with the actual 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:13.000 real devious licks that that that that did, that did exist. 0:22:13.320 --> 0:22:15.359 It was on TikTok, but it was just you know, 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:19.440 stealing stuff from bathrooms. Uh. It breaks off and and 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:22.000 and then eventually kind of just like making bathrooms into 0:22:22.040 --> 0:22:27.280 a mess. So but this this, this takes off. It's 0:22:27.400 --> 0:22:30.680 it goes, it goes, it goes pretty pretty viral. Then 0:22:30.720 --> 0:22:33.359 TikTok starts to crack down on it, and after like 0:22:33.440 --> 0:22:36.600 three to four weeks, the meme dies. It's it's you know, people, 0:22:36.720 --> 0:22:39.240 people are bored. There's too much enforcement. It's not fun. 0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:42.360 It's not fun anymore. And then we have this calendar 0:22:42.400 --> 0:22:45.600 list of challenges, right, possibly trying to spin off of 0:22:45.720 --> 0:22:48.960 like the devious licks thing and Gloman from the previous trend, 0:22:49.520 --> 0:22:52.040 or it was perhaps just written as like, uh, like 0:22:52.080 --> 0:22:54.920 a non serious joke. But the thing is like, it's 0:22:54.960 --> 0:22:57.080 not actually found on TikTok. Right, So, even if this 0:22:57.119 --> 0:22:59.840 list was originally made by a kid, uh, it's it 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:03.320 was not known by other kids on a national level, 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:06.280 either online or in person. But where it does get 0:23:06.320 --> 0:23:08.679 a visibility is through adults, and not on TikTok, but 0:23:08.760 --> 0:23:11.639 on Facebook. Initially being passed around by teachers and school 0:23:11.640 --> 0:23:15.280 administrators and other adults, ran on the Facebook platform and 0:23:15.359 --> 0:23:18.879 really accelerating from there. Right, we have we have, we 0:23:19.119 --> 0:23:22.280 have Gomez and then it's all over Facebook, It's all 0:23:22.280 --> 0:23:25.560 over Instagram, it's all over news articles, TV stations, and 0:23:25.600 --> 0:23:28.080 eventually does go. It eventually does get to TikTok, but 0:23:28.119 --> 0:23:30.080 not with kids talking about it instead of with teachers 0:23:30.080 --> 0:23:33.479 talking about it. But at this point, the story of 0:23:33.520 --> 0:23:37.359 the TikTok slap a teacher challenge was just tuned like 0:23:37.520 --> 0:23:40.760 enticing right. It had like enough of a grain of 0:23:40.840 --> 0:23:44.320 truth by piggybacking off of the real devious licks. But 0:23:44.359 --> 0:23:46.320 it was able to grow into this like entire false 0:23:46.359 --> 0:23:49.919 reality because there were enough ingredients for a good story. 0:23:50.040 --> 0:23:53.239 And that's where like perceptions of truth really flourishing, is 0:23:53.280 --> 0:23:58.600 good stories. And then we found out a few weeks 0:23:58.600 --> 0:24:03.000 ago there was there was this article by Taylor Lawrence 0:24:03.200 --> 0:24:07.359 Uh in the Washington Post that there there actually may 0:24:07.359 --> 0:24:09.919 have been some kind of behind the scenes fuckory making 0:24:09.920 --> 0:24:13.000 this trend to go as viral as it did. And 0:24:13.040 --> 0:24:15.680 we will we will get into that after after this, 0:24:15.800 --> 0:24:19.119 after this ad break. So have fun listening to these ads, 0:24:19.119 --> 0:24:23.480 and then we will talk about the behind the seams 0:24:23.560 --> 0:24:39.120 of making these these false online trends. Hello, we are back. 0:24:39.320 --> 0:24:42.760 So turns out lots of lots of there's lots of 0:24:42.840 --> 0:24:46.160 lots of fuckory happening. H to make to make, to make, 0:24:46.560 --> 0:24:49.480 to make narratives to make stories right. It's a all 0:24:49.840 --> 0:24:53.000 you know, turns out that not everything you read on 0:24:53.000 --> 0:24:57.800 the internet is true. Uh, pretty pretty shocking revelation here. 0:24:59.160 --> 0:25:02.399 So it came out a few weeks ago that Facebook 0:25:02.760 --> 0:25:06.679 was actually paying one of the biggest Republican consulting firms 0:25:06.720 --> 0:25:10.240 in the country to orchestrate a national campaign to turn 0:25:10.400 --> 0:25:16.919 the public opinion negatively towards TikTok. The campaign was it 0:25:17.040 --> 0:25:20.800 was placing it include placing like op eds and letters, 0:25:21.600 --> 0:25:25.680 two editors of like, you know, major major news outlets, 0:25:26.320 --> 0:25:32.080 promoting of false, false stories about about like the growth 0:25:32.119 --> 0:25:35.000 of alleged TikTok trends that actually had started on Facebook, 0:25:35.440 --> 0:25:38.440