TikTok has been filled with fans romantically spinning their pets to Taylor Swift‘s “August” in recent weeks. Now, Penn Badgley and Kevin Bacon have gotten in on the action, sharing their own version of the “August” TikTok trend. In the clip, posted by Badgley, the You actor runs through a …
Read More »They Gossiped At Brunch. Now There's a Mob After Them
“Whoever Sarah is, your friends [are] over there talking about you.” When TikTok influencer Kellie Yancy overheard a group of women gossiping about their friend while out at brunch, she immediately got on TikTok. “They said that your coochie was out on the video, she said you dress sleazy everywhere …
Read More »TikTok Shop Says It Doesn't Allow Parasite Cleanses — So Why Is It Pushing Them?
“Guys….this thing dropped out of my c00ch1e and it’s alive. I need answers please,” the text on the video reads. A lengthy, worm-like creature that could be anywhere from one inch to 10 feet — the scale of the video is unclear — slithers across the screen. In a stitch …
Read More »'You Do Not Need Glasses': A Wellness Coach's Bogus Claim — And Its 100-Year History
“What’s the one thing that your optometrist doesn’t want you to know about?” asks a “human optimization specialist” who goes by the name Samantha Lotus in a recent video on her Instagram account. “The fact that you do not need glasses,” she answers, removing a pair from her own face. …
Read More »Why Are So Many Men Obsessed With the Roman Empire?
There are very few people who know more about the history of ancient Rome than Mike Duncan. The creator and host of the tremendously popular History of Rome podcast, which first aired between 2007 and 2012, Duncan has essentially devoted his career to studying the inner workings of the Roman …
Read More »How TikTok Brought Back 'Ugly Betty'
How do people watch their favorite TV shows? Using a cable provider? Bought season by season direct on demand? Switching on whichever streaming service has it at the moment? Well, on TikTok, one of the most popular ways to consume media right now is watching episodes broken up into dozens …
Read More »Ruby Franke Is True-Crime TikTok's Next Target
When homeowners in suburban Utah called the police on Aug. 30, they were just trying to help a young boy. Police reports from that day detail that a 12-year-old had escaped from a nearby house and asked neighbors for help but appeared to be “emaciated, malnourished,” and had “open wounds,” …
Read More »TikTok's WGA Ban Was Meant to Catch QAnon Conspiracies
TikTok has fixed a mistake that temporarily prevented users from searching for videos related to the Writers Guild of America strike —saying the phrase was accidentally flagged by the app’s filters against QAnon. News of the block was first reported by Media Matters. When the phrase WGA was put into …
Read More »She Posted About Making Shakshuka on a Lazy Saturday. Then She Got Death Threats
When podcaster Julia Mazur posted a TikTok about spending a slightly hungover Saturday learning how to make shakshuka, the initial response to her video was fairly normal. Mazur — whose podcast Pretty Much Done explores relationships and loving your life at every stage — often posts TikToks cataloging her life …
Read More »The Right Would Like All Women to be 1950s Housewives, Please
Over Labor Day weekend, a podcaster and minor TikTok influencer named Julia Mazur posted a video describing what her Saturday morning looked like for her as a single, child-free 29-year-old woman. After going to a Beyoncé concert the night before, she recounted, she woke up slightly hungover and stayed in …
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