TikTok accounts, with followers under the age 16, selling ‘zombie knives’

A number of TikTok accounts, some even having followers under the age of 16, have put up a catalogue of machetes, zombie-style knives and samurai swords and are offering to sell and deliver them to the UK, as per reports. At least two of these accounts which are putting pictures of these large knives with broad blades claim to be based out of England, as per UK media portal The Times.

A Portsmouth-based account claims to be selling machetes for as little as £30. It has amassed more than 10,000 likes and 2,000 followers. Its TikTok videos have QR codes. When scanned itleadsdirectly to an encrypted Telegram channel with hundreds of testimonials frompurported British buyers. More than 200 photographs of knives, fist-load weapons, and gunsare also included in the collection, along with pictures of mail receipts.

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Harmful TikTok content

The machetes as seen in the reports are of a variety of shapes and sizes. The presence of teens under the age of 16 on these TikTok accounts is itself a cause of concern as machetes handled by them can be dangerous and lead to any untoward consequence.

There is a lot of entertaining content available on Tiktok but this type of content when teens can look at all the testimonies by British 'zombie knives' buyers is inappropriate. Not only selling these knives can be dangerous but can also pose a risk to the individuals buying them.

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Earlier research into TikTok content

This is not the first time when Tiktok has come under fire for the type of content available on the platform. According to a research released in December last year by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), some users of TikTok receive recommendations for self-harm and eating disorder material right after joining the platform.

For the study, researchers created TikTok profiles posing as 13-year-old users who were interested in body image and mental health-related material. It was discovered that TikTok's algorithm started recommending suicide material as soon as the user had been using the app for only 2.6 minutes. According to the findings, eating disorder content was suggested in as little as 8 minutes.

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James P. Steyer, Founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, said, "The new report by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate underscores why it is way past time for TikTok to take steps to address the platform's dangerous algorithmic amplification."

"TikTok's algorithm is bombarding teens with harmful content that promote suicide, eating disorders, and body image issues that is fuelling the teens' mental health crisis."

TikTok algorithm

The world's fastest growing social media app, TikTok, was worldwide released by the Chinese business ByteDance in 2017. The algorithms are influenced by personal data such as likes and watch time of a user.

US pressing TikTok over data concerns

TikTok has been under the radar of United States overconcerns that China would request US users' data from the app. The White House had been attempting to negotiate an arrangement with TikTok forimplementingnew data protection measures amid US' demands pressuring ByteDance to sell the app.

(With inputs from agencies)

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