The Habersham County Sheriff’s Office is calling on TikTok to be more diligent in removing content dangerous to schools from their platform following a school shooting rumor that circulated the app in mid-December.
Rumors circulated earlier this month of a TikTok challenge encouraging violent acts in schools that the social media platform says were not credible. Those rumors, though, were enough for parents, students and schools to worry.
Public school systems across the state increased law enforcement presence on campuses out of an abundance of caution. The rumored challenge, called “National shoot up your school day,” did not result in any reported shootings or acts of violence, but did attract attention.
“We handle even rumored threats with utmost seriousness,” the social media platform tweeted on Dec. 17, when the challenge was rumored to take place. “Which is why we’re working with law enforcement to look into warnings about potential violence at schools even though we have not found evidence of such threats originating or spreading via TikTok.”
1/ Update: we’ve exhaustively searched for content that promotes violence at schools today, but have still found nothing. What we find are videos discussing this rumor and warning others to stay safe.
— TikTokComms (@TikTokComms) December 17, 2021
The Habersham County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) issued a statement today to TikTok’s legal team, urging the social media platform to be more vigilant in removing circulating unsafe content.
Sheriff Terrell has addressed #TikTok ‘s handling of the recent “December 17th National Shoot Up Your School Day” by formally contacting their legal team with the attached memo. Please support our continued efforts to keep our students and schools safe by sharing this post. pic.twitter.com/P98HmmSufQ
— Habersham County Sheriff’s Office (@HabershamSO) December 29, 2021
“More law enforcement resources had to be allocated to provide students and their parents with a feeling of safety and protection,” the HCSO statement reads. “TikTok has a duty, if not a moral obligation, to monitor the content of posts on its site proactively and immediately remove posts that violate the terms of service and cause concern over the public’s safety. This is especially true when it involves the safety and security of our young people.”
This is the second time this academic year the HCSO has had to increase law enforcement presence and safety awareness at Habersham’s public schools following a viral “threat,” which turned out to have no credibility. Near the end of October, a threat against “Central High School” made its way around the nation, circulating at Habersham Central and causing concern.
A Habersham County ninth-grader had charges raised against him in September after school administrators and law enforcement became aware of an “inappropriate joke” he made, in which he posted an image to Snapchat of a student holding a BB gun, telling students not to come to school.
These rumors and jokes aren’t something HCSO takes lightly and wants the problem to stop. In their statement to TikTok, they say that supporting the efforts of law enforcement to provide safe school environments should be a top priority for the platform and that taking down rumors and threats should be immediate.
“We ask that you support the efforts of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies and school systems nationwide in providing safe school environments for our students to learn and grow,” the HCSO goes on to say. “TikTok can do this simply by being diligent in monitoring posts to its platform and in the immediate removal of any post that causes concern over school safety.”
