- Two people posted videos accusing TikToker social justice Lance Tsosie of cheating.
- The internet quickly turned on him and his accusers, prompting backlash and mockery.
- Experts say seeking justice online can have dire consequences for everyone involved.
Three TikTokers found themselves embroiled in a controversy involving accusations of cheating and lying that played out very publicly on social media.
Lance Tsosie, an anti-racism activist and TikToker with 2.7 million followers, has been accused by two people who said they dated him of having sex with multiple partners behind their backs.
The charges against Tsosie are not criminal in nature, but that hasn’t stopped social media users from taking sides and ultimately backfiring on all parties involved. Tsosie lost half a million followers after the allegations, while Chelsea Hart, one of the people who spoke out against Tsosie, was berated online by people mocking their since-suppressed emotional outbursts on camera .
The saga highlights the complications when people argue in public, mirrored in previous high-profile disputes. In January, several women in New York banded together to find they had all dated – and then been ghosted – by a man nicknamed “West Elm Caleb”. The story highlighted issues with both modern dating culture and online research, but it all came at the expense of Caleb’s privacy.
Internet culture researcher Steven Buckley, PhD, told Insider that authenticity has become “one of the main currencies of digital communication,” but that comes with complications.
By sharing their lives on the internet, the creators are opening themselves “not only to sympathetic comments from fans trying to heal these wounds, but also to trolls and haters who are only willing to pour salt into an already painful experience,” a- he declared.
When dating, influencers may find that their relationship with their fans becomes more intimate, he added, resulting in both positive and negative reactions from all sides. In this case, an attempt to expose a social justice TikToker for alleged bad behavior demonstrated how these types of videos can have detrimental effects for everyone involved.
It all started with an allegation of cheating
Chelsea Hart has 1.2 million followers on TikTok, where they usually post comedic videos calling them sexist practices and standards.
On March 2, Hart, who uses the pronouns “they” and “them,” posted a series of ICT Tac videos who were seen by Insider claiming they had been pursuing a long-term relationship with Tsosie for the past six months until they found out he was secretly having unprotected sex with other women. These videos have since been deleted.
Hart accused Tsosie of feeling “entitled to my body” and said they wouldn’t have consented to the meeting if they had known he was seeing other people.
On March 3, Hart shared a video supposedly job by Tsosie, where he apologized for “not being the effective communicator I wanted to be”, adding that he wanted to “learn and grow”.
Tsosie did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.
A second woman came forward with charges, and a few erupted between the two
On March 3, a woman named Amanda Mariewhich has 300,000 TikTok followers, made similar charges against Tsosie in a since-deleted TikTok.
Marie, who did not respond to Insider’s request for comment, said her and Hart’s stories were “identical,” adding that Tsosie had unprotected sex with her after she claimed he didn’t have sex with anyone else – a scenario she described as depriving her of the ability to give “informed consent”, which sparked debate in the comments section as some people saw it as an accusation of sexual misconduct.
Catalina Goanta, an assistant professor at Maastricht University’s Faculty of Law who specializes in researching the legal implications of cancel culture, told Insider that although Tsosie is dating multiple women is not illegal, if Hart or Marie had caught an STD or become pregnant, they could claim to have suffered financial loss, for psychological or physical treatment, or all costs involved in raising a child.
Marie’s TikTok account has since been made private so her videos can’t be seen on her page, but Hart share with the caption “another woman he lied to”.
However, the two women did not appear to form a bond over their similar accusations. A video supposed to be made by Marie circulated on TikTok on March 5. In it, Marie accused Hart of “using this moment” to defame Tsosie and gain followers.
In the video, she claimed Hart called her and “pressured” her to post more videos to get “attention,” and accused Hart of going public “to get your support, to get your sympathy and to get subscribers”.
Hard did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.
The videos led to public mockery and derision towards everyone involved
The controversy received huge attention on TikTok, as people debated who was wrong, and various re-downloads and recap posts deleted since have been viewed millions of times.
A week after the initial charges, Tsosie’s follower count had risen from 3.2 million to 2.7 million on TikTok, according to the analytics website. SocialBlade.
But unlike West Elm Caleb’s case and the high-profile accusations of sexual misconduct on TikTok, Hart also appeared to largely fall out of favor with viewers.
They gained 100,000 followers after posting their first TikTok, but had lost them all by the end of the week after accusations of “influence hunting” and backlash for their intensely emotional TikToks.
Their initial video, for example, was mocked and turned into a memeespecially the phrase “evil that lives deep in my belly, Lance”, which has been repeatedly misquoted and joked about as “womblands”.
Videos appeal to the three creators and dig old content posted by Tsosie received millions of views and hundreds of thousands of likes.
Both Hart and Tsosie built their large followings by speaking out against harmful, problematic, racist and sexist behavior on the internet, which may have opened them up to additional levels of scrutiny and criticism when airing their personal issues. to the public.
Rachael Kent, researcher in
digital health
and the digital economy at King’s College London told Insider the backlash shows the precarious nature of being an influencer and sharing your life online – there’s no way of knowing how an audience will react or react. he will take your side.
Goanta said recent cases where people have taken to TikTok to accuse people of bad behavior show that justice comes in many forms on the internet.
“Social media has paved the way for making justice visible,” Goanta said. “But then the question is, what kind of justice is that?”
For more stories like this, check out Insider’s digital literacy team coverage here.
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