What was billed to be a massive turnout of support for President Trump despite a pandemic was in reality a partially filled arena in Tulsa last night with outside overflow viewing venues closed before he even spoke. As reported in the New York Times, the kick-start of the President’s re-election campaign sagged under the weight of bad timing and bad decisions, and what appears to be a large scale prank promulgated by K-pop fans and users of teen focused platform TikTok.
Various news sources reported that in advance of the rally the Trump campaign encouraged free online ticket registrations, with the President days before touting one million possible attendees. Unbeknownst to him and his organizers, K-pop fans (aka K-pop stans) and teen TikTok users encouraged people to register and then not attend.
Much of the mischief occurred on Alt Tik Tok where users playfully and creatively act out in a fake arena of multinationals and their brands. There the prank reportedly went viral as individuals created accounts, registered for the event and then deleted the accounts to keep the prank from reaching the mainstream media, according to media reports.
What began as a way for teens to idolize their favorite music groups has recently morphed into some form of social and political involvement, as reported on TheCut. One of the earliest campaigns began a few weeks ago when the Dallas Police Department asked citizens to send them videos of suspicious or illegal activity, but instead received thousands of “fancam” videos.
