The Habersham County Sheriff’s Office is urging TikTok to be more careful in removing content dangerous to schools from its platform following a school shootout rumor that circulated in mid-December.
Earlier this month, rumors began to circulate about a TikTok challenge that encouraged violence in schools that the social media platform said was not credible. However, those rumors were enough to worry parents, students, and schools.
Public school systems across the state increased the presence of law enforcement agencies on campus as a precaution. The rumored challenge, entitled “National Shoot Up Your School Day,” resulted in no reported shootings or violence, but it did attract attention.
“We even deal with threat rumors with the utmost seriousness,” tweeted the social media platform on December 17th when the challenge was rumored. “That’s why we’re working with law enforcement to investigate warnings of potential violence in schools, even though we haven’t found any evidence that such threats originate or spread through TikTok.”
1 / Update: We searched hard for content that promotes violence in schools today, but we still haven’t found anything. What we find are videos discussing this rumor and warning others to stay safe.
– TikTokComms (@TikTokComms) December 17, 2021
The Habersham County’s Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) today issued a statement to the TikTok legal team urging the social media platform to be more vigilant in removing circulating unsafe content.
Sheriff Terrell addressed #TikTok’s handling of the recent National Shoot Up Your School Day on December 17th by formally reaching out to his legal team with the attached memo. Please support our ongoing efforts to protect our students and schools by sharing this post. pic.twitter.com/P98HmmSufQ
– Habersham County Sheriff’s Office (@HabershamSO) December 29, 2021
“More law enforcement resources needed to be devoted to providing students and their parents with a sense of security and protection,” the HCSO statement said. “TikTok has a duty, if not a moral obligation, to proactively monitor the content of any post on its website and to promptly remove any post that violates the Terms of Use and raises public safety concerns. This is especially true when it comes to the safety of our young people. “
This is the second time this academic year that the HCSO has had to increase law enforcement presence and safety awareness in Habersham public schools following a viral “threat” that was found to be untrustworthy. A threat to Central High School circulating in Habersham Central and causing concern spread across the country towards the end of October.
In September a Habersham County ninth grader was charged after school administration and law enforcement became aware of an “inappropriate joke” he made on school.
HCSO does not take these rumors and jokes lightly and wants the problem to stop. In their statement to TikTok, they say that supporting law enforcement efforts to provide a safe school environment should be a top priority for the platform and that rumors and threats should be eliminated immediately.
“We ask you to support the efforts of state, state and local law enforcement agencies and school systems across the country to provide our students with a safe school environment for them to learn and grow,” continues the HCSO. “TikTok can do this simply by carefully monitoring the posts on its platform and immediately removing any posts that raise school safety concerns.”
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