(TargetLiberty.org) – A social media platform popular with teenagers has banned the latest “challenge” craze, in the face of a growing toll of injuries. Is this a violation of free speech, or a necessary response to irresponsible behavior online?
Recently, Chinese social media platform, TikTok, exploded with a new craze, the so-called milk crate challenge. To take part, people would build a pyramid of stacked milk crates then get a friend to film them walking up one side and down the other. However, there’s a reason the ancient Egyptians built their pyramids out of huge stone blocks, not flimsy crates: Stone doesn’t fall over.
Because too many users apparently thought a shot at going viral was worth a possible shot at going to the emergency room, TikTok has banned the so-called Milk Crate Challenge https://t.co/zFf2NdgdqC pic.twitter.com/GlYcsiaAah
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) August 27, 2021
Most of the videos end with the stack of crates collapsing and the “challenger” crashing to the ground, some of them on their heads or backs. At least two people in the Atlanta, GA area have suffered fractures trying the stunt.
Now TikTok is removing milk crate challenge videos, and searching for related hashtags gets you directed to a page explaining that “This phrase may be associated with behavior or content that violates our guidelines. Promoting a safe and positive experience is TikTok’s top priority.”
Previous online challenges have gone equally as bad, such as 2018’s “Tide pod challenge,” a brutal exercise that saw several people poisoned after putting laundry pods in their mouths. Still tempted? If you do break something, doctors warn that the treatment could count as elective surgery. One cynic tweeted “People doing this like they have the best health insurance…”
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