Flamethrower 'problem' blamed for teen's horrific burns doesn’t really look like widespread on TikTok

• Quite a few media shops attributed Mason Darkish’s extreme burns to a supposedly viral TikTok pattern.
• The problem is alleged to contain utilizing spray paint and a lighter to create a makeshift flamethrower.
• Insider was unable to search out proof of such a viral problem. TikTok mentioned it does not exist on the platform.

Quite a few information shops blamed a North Carolina teenager’s extreme burns on a viral TikTok problem, prompting widespread protection suggesting the app was driving harmful conduct.

They instructed that 16-year-old Mason Darkish’s use of highly-flammable spray paint and a lighter to create a makeshift flamethrower was a part of a problem on the app.

Per Insider’s analysis, there’s little proof to recommend that such a problem was widespread on TikTok.

Insider looked for varied phrases associated to the supposed viral problem, all of which returned solely a handful of related movies with a comparatively few views.

Real trending points on TikTok can rack up tens of hundreds of thousands of views in a brief area of time — Insider discovered no proof of posts approaching that threshold.

“Spray paint lighter,” “aerosol lighter,” “flamethrower problem,” and “blowtorch problem,” have been amongst a number of the phrases which produced solely restricted outcomes. Many posts have been a yr or extra previous.

It’s nonetheless doable that Darkish was reacting to a type of posts — but it surely doesn’t look like a part of a wider phenomenon the place a number of different folks have been doing the identical.

A TikTok spokesperson mentioned in an announcement supplied to Insider: “This isn’t a ‘problem’ on our platform.”

They famous that the platform applies warnings to some movies that could possibly be harmful after they do seem on the app.

The spokesperson pointed to the existence of those kinds of movies on different platforms, notably YouTube, which return so far as a decade.

Nonetheless, The Solar, DailyMail.com, and the New York Every day Information have been amongst quite a few high-profile publications to explain it as a viral TikTok pattern.

Insider additionally framed the accident as a TikTok problem gone flawed, citing the native outlet WRAL.

WRAL quoted Darkish’s mom saying “it’s challenges on TikTok” which might be responsible, with out giving any specifics.

This phenomenon of attributing dangerous incidents involving the loss of life or damage of a kid to TikTok has a protracted historical past, Insider’s Palmer Haasch and Kieran Press-Reynolds beforehand reported.

A variety of challenges, together with the “blackout problem,” have been tied to TikTok regardless of there being little proof that it originated and even existed on the platform. 

Abbie Richards, a misinformation researcher who focuses on TikTok, advised Insider in 2021 that many adults simply do not perceive TikTok, which creates an “alarm zone” and permits the platform to develop into a “boogeyman” for folks to put blame on. 

As an alternative of adults “doing the precise work of understanding” TikTok, Richards mentioned it is simpler for them to create or add to an ethical panic.