TikTok continues to be on shaky floor in the US. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court docket upheld a law handed by Congress final yr that required a ban of the Chinese language-owned app except it was bought to a government-approved purchaser.
Hours earlier than the legislation took impact, TikTok went dark briefly, then flickered again to life when President Trump, a day earlier than his inauguration, indicated support for the app. He then signed an executive order stalling the ban for 75 days.
Whether or not the app will disappear for good is unclear, however within the meantime, listed here are 4 true-crime tales related to TikTok — the most downloaded app in the US and the world in 2020, 2021 and 2022 — that captured broader consideration.
It’s after all no secret that the shiny dance movies which have populated TikTok since its inception, together with a lot on-line content material, is extra fantasy than actuality. However that’s little consolation to the revelations uncovered on this 2024 Netflix collection.
“Dancing for the Satan” primarily spends time with dancers who have been managed by the expertise firm 7M Movies and have been members of Shekinah Church — each entities based and led by Pastor Robert Shinn — in addition to determined relations of these nonetheless concerned with 7M. These households declare that their family members are basically trapped.
Shinn created 7M to seemingly assist TikTok dancers and aspiring influencers elevate their standing. The dancers we hear from declare that 7M is a cult and that Shinn is an abusive cult chief. Accusations embody these of fraud, labor violations, extortion, grooming and assault. (Shinn didn’t take part within the collection and denies wrongdoing.)
“Dancing for the Satan” falls right into a class of true crime that does much less wanting again and as an alternative paperwork a scenario that continues to unfold. Our film critic commended the three-part collection for not speeding the narrative, calling it “daring, instructive, considerate and transferring.”
Documentary movie
Final yr I wrote about how true-crime storytellers used to have little in the way in which of real-time first-person footage to depend on. Now, as a lot of our each day lives are documented, the style has remodeled. And there has by no means fairly been a path of damning video and audio proof as there was with this case — instructed on this 2024 Peacock documentary — concerning the 2021 murders of Ana Abulaban and Rayburn Barron, who have been killed by Ana’s estranged husband, Ali Abulaban.
Ali was a TikTok star who, beneath the username JinnKid, gained prominence and thousands and thousands of followers together with his comedic Skyrim and “Scarface” impressions. He recorded a lot of his life on his telephone, and as his and Ana’s marriage unraveled, he broadcast their fights reside, dissolving the right picture that they had projected on-line.
He even recorded audio throughout the second of the murders, and neighbors’ doorbell cameras of their luxurious San Diego high-rise captured the aftermath.
This can be a story of home violence, jealousy and dependancy, and of how a fixation on social-media fame can warp actuality past restore.
Documentary Sequence
Right here we find out about Sania Khan, a photographer and Pakistani American influencer whose TikTok following swelled when she began to talk candidly about her break up from her husband, Raheel Ahmad, after a tumultuous and abusive marriage.
Confessional-type content material is in all places on social media, however for Khan, airing out her non-public life was significantly courageous due to the conservative South Asian and Muslim communities of which she was half — cultures that count on ladies to keep up the established order and put their household’s fame first.
Whereas scores of ladies celebrated her candor and commiserated together with her ache within the feedback, there was additionally a brutal backlash from those that thought her posts have been shameful, and proceeded to harass, bully and threaten her.
When she was simply hours from beginning a brand new chapter in her life, the worst happened.
This episode is especially poignant as a result of Khan’s story is essentially instructed by means of her closest buddies, who concentrate on her effervescent character and her mission to modernize her tradition, push previous taboos and reclaim her id.
Digital Sequence
When Tareasa Johnson, recognized on-line as Reesa Teesa, posted a 50-part collection to her TikTok web page final yr recounting her doomed marriage to her ex-husband — a drama that features claims of fraud, forgery and manipulation — the internet was riveted. Because the story unfurled, each revelation extra stunning than the final, she gained tons of of thousands and thousands of views.
All in, the movies clock in at over six hours, however they’re price it. It’s additionally a refreshing option to expertise tales like these: stripped down, minimally produced and instructed immediately from the particular person at its heart.
The collection might finally vanish for American customers together with the app. However for those who miss it, Natasha Rothwell (“The White Lotus”) is developing a television adaptation of the saga.
