Warning: This article contains mentions of sensitive subject matter including sexual assault. Please exercise caution while reading.
Recently, people have been speaking up on TikTok regarding a disturbing trend relating to the date April 24.
TikTok has taught us that there are some dangerous people out there. In this case some individuals supposedly decided to allocate April 24 as a national day for sexual assault, glorifying the horrific act and even giving tips on how to carry out the crime. Naturally there has been outrage from people on the popular video sharing app lately as the idea that people would spread this idea, even as a joke, is completely unacceptable and has led to many women feeling even more unsafe than usual.
Where did the April 24 trend come from?
Many believe that the whole thing started back in 2021 during April, which is also Sexual Assault Awareness Month, when a group of men made a video claiming that the crime would be legal on the 24th. According to an article from Distractify, the men claimed that it was legal to sexually assault anybody on this day. It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: this is not true. While that may be obvious to most normal people, there is a small minority who may be influenced by such fake news. Spreading false information like this can lead to people actually being hurt.
However, the original video can no longer be found and what’s more, there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that such a video ever even existed. Back in 2021, USA Today investigated the claims and found no proof that the original threat was real. If you search April 24 on TikTok you will mostly find videos warning others about the threat, but thankfully, there aren’t any videos encouraging it. In a statement from TikTok back in 2021 a spokesperson had this to say:
“Keeping our community safe is our priority, and we do not tolerate content that promotes or glorifies non-consensual sexual acts including rape and sexual assault, […] our safety team is remaining vigilant and we will remove content that violates our policies.”
The trend re-emerged in 2024
The trend has re-appeared recently and it seems to do so every year as more people learn about it. However many of the recent videos under the tag are providing tips for self defense while others make threats of their own towards men who intend to try anything on the 24th.
Reporting videos
Hopefully any videos that do condone such acts aren’t able to stay up on the app long enough to be seen by many. If you do see anything on TikTok you can and should report it. You can do this by tapping on the share arrow and then the “report” symbol, which is a little flag, you’ll then be provided a list of reasons, all you have to do is tap the most appropriate one.
