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Solen Feyissa (CC-BY-SA)

No, a little girl wasn’t beheaded in this viral TikTok—someone else might’ve been though

Here's what we know about the disturbing clip.

 

Brooke Sjoberg

Internet Culture

Posted on Jun 7, 2021   Updated on Jun 7, 2021, 9:59 am CDT

A viral decapitation video that appears to show a little girl losing her head may not be exactly what it appears to be.

Originally posted to TikTok by creator @Mayenggo3, the video has been taken down and the account put on private, according to Heavy. However, it is being shared via other profiles, prompting worry and warning from parents, at least one of whom has contacted a news outlet to warn others of the video’s prevalence on a platform heavily populated by children.

The video, which has been translated by Heavy, does not mention anything about cartels, as many on Twitter have suggested. It is also unclear whether the person who is being gruesomely killed is actually the little girl shown dancing at the beginning of the video, or if it is actually an adult man.

It starts with a young girl dancing, and then quickly changes to the decapitation, Heavy reports. The clothing of the girl and the person being decapitated is reportedly very different, and although the people in the video are speaking Spanish, they are referring to the person with words used to describe males, according to a translator Heavy spoke with.

This isn’t the first death to appear on TikTok. in 2020, 16-year-old Kalecia Williams was recording a dance routine until someone entered her hotel room at a Hyatt Regency in Atlanta, Georgia. She appears scared, but then the video abruptly ends. Williams was found dead less than an hour after the video was made.

On Twitter, the video of decapitation has turned more than a few heads, with many warning to avoid the girl in the black cropped tank top which starts the video.

“Theres currently a video of a girl getting her head sawed off going around on twitter and tiktok, so please be careful, the video is of a girl in a shower and a man with a knife (i think) if you wanna skip it rt if you want for visibility,” @mitskilyrcbot wrote.

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Twitter/@mitskilyrcbot

Another warned of content creators sharing the video under the guise of awareness.

“Found out the hard way there is a video going around tiktok that shows an actual human decapitation,” @queenofthefaye wrote. “If you see a young woman with long dark hair, black tank top, and white shorts dancing to Doja Cat, IMMEDIATELY swipe away. If you see any videos of anyone talking about it, pause and check the comments IMMEDIATELY. People are reposting the video while claiming they’re warning people. All videos showing this graphic situation cut to it WITHOUT warning. Stay safe.”

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Twitter/@Queenofthefaye

The Daily Dot has reached out to TikTok.


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*First Published: Jun 7, 2021, 9:20 am CDT