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Analysis
Posting comedic videos of people in public is the bedrock of TikTok. It’s even the bedrock of the internet.
But some recent creators are making the case against posting people without their consent on the app—especially when TikTok videos can have such a wide reach.
Last week, in the wake of Valentine’s Day, TikTokers were posting about their exes en masse. And not just posting about them: Many were posting photos of their exes to ridicule them for their looks.
Beyond the trend being super mean-spirited, some of these exes’ faces were viewed by millions of people. And there are a handful of reasons why someone might not want their face posted on the internet, namely that it can be an identity risk.
Why it matters
Sure, most of us post photos of ourselves on social media, but posting one’s face—or any identifying details, for that matters—online should be a personal decision.
And the credence of “only post of others what you would want posted of yourself” applies to videos that don’t have any malintent, too.
@LadiesOfMadisonAvenue, a TikTok account that documents the designer outfits worn by older women walking around New York City’s Upper East Side, got some flak for seemingly posting the ladies without their knowledge.
“We really need to have a conversation about the etiquette of posting non-content creator, just regular Average Joe, people in videos,” TikToker @azeezahgoodwin says in a stitch of a @LadiesOfMadisonAvenue video.
She goes on to say that people walking down the street don’t necessarily think they’ll end up in a TikTok video “that could potentially get like millions of views,” as so many TikToks do.
“Maybe we need to think about when it’s appropriate to ask for someone’s consent before posting them to a platform like this,” @azeezahgoodwin says.
Of course, asking for consent before filming and posting doesn’t apply when recording police or if you’re a witness to a crime. Those things should be filmed for the public’s benefit.
But when it comes to posting people you see on the street, doing so can be a bit unfair with regard to their privacy.