NSW Police blasted after joining TikTok
<p dir="ltr">TikTok has become the home of influencers, brands, creatives and even zoos, but the NSW Police haven’t received as warm a welcome on the platform as they might have expected.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Despite gaining popularity for their law-related memes and posts on Facebook, the organisation’s debut on TikTok has seen them be called out for issues including police violence, Indigenous deaths in police custody, and the rates of domestic violence in the force.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Less than a month after starting the @nswpolice TikTok account, users have been taking advantage of the platform’s ‘duet’ feature (which allows users to create videos that play next to the original video) to address these issues.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Ben Vance, a 26-year-old digital marketing coordinator in Sydney, has even been blocked by the account after duetting their videos with less-than-flattering headlines involving the police.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“I thought, ‘This is the perfect time to air out some bad laundry’,” he told <em><a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stefficao/nsw-police-blocks-tiktok-duets" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Buzzfeed News</a></em>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Some of the videos show officers acting out funny skits about their law enforcement tactics, with one viral clip showing an officer responding to the question, ‘How do we keep the roads safe this long weekend?’ with a cartoon filter overlaid with text reading, “DOUBLE DEMERITS”.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Can’t say we didn’t warn you,” the caption reads.</p>
<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a24f7f6-7fff-dd8f-e933-df4b97b1655f">Mr Vance <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@easymoneyvancey" target="_blank" rel="noopener">duetted</a> that clip with a video of himself smiling over a screenshot from the Australian Institute of Criminology’s report that reveals there were almost 500 Indigenous deaths reported in police custody in the last 30 years.</span></p>
<p><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/04/tiktok-nswpolice.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>Ben Vance has been praised for pointing out issues involving the police, who have since blocked him on the platform. Image: @easymoneyvancey (TikTok)</em></p>
<p dir="ltr">Mr Vance has had his own takes go viral, with supportive comments telling him he is “doing god's work” flooding in and messages from people sharing their frustrations with the police.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“I’ve gotten people reaching out to me in my TikTok comments and DMs (direct messages) telling me they were 16, walking into a music festival, and strip-searched because they ‘looked like a drug dealer’,” he told the outlet.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Though he said he didn’t intend to start “a beef with the police”, he thought it was a good opportunity to hold them accountable.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“There’s a lack of accountability reporting in this country with the news media being owned by a select few people, and this information isn’t very well publicised,” he said.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The double demerits clip isn’t the only one of NSW Police’s videos to be used to criticise the force, and Mr Vance isn’t the only person to be blocked as a result of their criticisms. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Taken from the perspective of two officers tapping on a computer screen, it features the text: “POV: you’re looking up someone in the system who was using their phone while driving without a licence and speeding in an unregistered vehicle with two bald tyres and no working tail lights, wondering how they thought they would get away with it”.</p>
<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-d57e00c0-7fff-00fb-7db5-d453298ce1dc"></span></p>
<p dir="ltr">User @<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@biglublyleanne?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">biglublyleanne</a> responded to that clip, mimicking the officers with the caption, “POV: you’re writing an incident report after killing another Black Australian”, written over the top.</p>
<p><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/04/tiktok-cops1.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>TikTok user @biglublyleanne was also blocked shortly after pointing out the issue of Indigenous deaths in custody. Image: @biglublyleanne (TikTok)</em></p>
<p dir="ltr">On the same day, the user revealed they had also been blocked by the account.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“You can give Indigenous people the heat mercilessly but can’t take it,” they wrote in the caption.</p>
<p dir="ltr">As of publication, interactive options that allow users to duet or stitch videos are no longer available - but preventing people from sharing their clips has just increased the backlash.</p>
<p dir="ltr">A more recent clip about Ed, the tabby police cat that features prominently on the organisation’s Facebook page, has received comments asking for the features to be turned back on, while some joked that the page would soon prevent people from commenting too.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“The police thinking they can come on tiktok and not be dragged,” one user wrote.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Don’t be shy, turn duets and stitches back on,” another said.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Imagine blocking people who are exercising freedom of speech - I thought criticism of government bodies was legal, guess not,” a third argued.</p>
<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-0c36875b-7fff-2075-379a-00b334b382c9"></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>Image: @easymoneyvancey (TikTok)</em></p>
