A TikTok community of around half a million followers is using tactics from online trolls to spread messages of encouragement rather than abuse.
The Kindness Mob was set up earlier this year by Tyler Brickley, a digital marketer based in Kansas City in the United States. Brickley leads his followers to those who are being cyberbullied or overlooked and they then inundate their comment sections with positive messages. He described it as ‘hijacking the machinery of online harassment’ but for benevolent reasons.
One recipient, Laura Tigeleiro from Staten Island, New York, was being abused for her looks. Tigeleiro has multiple sclerosis, which has caused one of her blue eyes to droop sideways and she had been using TikTok to share healthy recipes and make friends she said people were making hurtful comments about her appearance.
But one of her videos in March picked up more than 15,000 supportive comments after she discovered the Kindness Mob had targeted her account. Tigeleiro then gained enough followers for TikTok to start paying her and she said that the money helped her family afford a much-needed new car.
Brickley said there have been around 350 ‘mobs’ so far and their videos can get thousands of comments and millions of views. Another recipient, Renee Penick, a grandmother from Ohio, said the support turned up just as her husband was in hospital. Musician Nocturne from upstate New York said it helped her get new fans and prepare for a tour.
Professor Nicholas Christakis of Yale University said what the Kindness Mob was doing was reflecting how behaviour was spreading through social networks. He described the approach used by the Kindness Mob as an example of positive behaviour spreading from one person to another.
Christakis said social media can play on people’s natural tendencies towards conflict, but it could also drive friendship and kindness. He said research had shown that cascades of kindness could affect how people behaved towards others even if they had never met.
However, the project has taken its toll on Brickley. Followers nominate between 20 and 100 possible recipients of positivity each day but Brickley only picks one person to target for the campaign. He said it was too big a responsibility and forced him to take a break for a few months.
Alice Marwick, director of research at the Data and Society Research Institute, warned online movements can burn out quickly. She said organisers can often be burnt out after a year or two. Marwick nevertheless backed attempts to increase positive behaviour online, while saying it was unclear how much it would change wider online culture.
Brickley said the experience had reinforced his belief in the project. For him, the Kindness Mob is just one step towards changing how people behave online.
