Popular video streaming app TikTok has a dark side. Though casually scrolling through the platform’s content can make it feel like a positive place, full of earnest users gleefully lip-synching and joking around, the content is also repurposed in other ways. “For many adolescents, TikTok is most often consumed secondhand, collected from the app and published on other platforms,” where they’re presented in often mean-spirited “cringe” reels. Meme accounts on Instagram and YouTube share “ironic TikTok,” spreading the content on other platforms, where they can earn millions of views. (NYMag)
