Irresponsible creators don’t deserve social media platforms

Mia Kane, Staff Writer

Teenagers are emotional and irresponsible at times, but they are also very young and impressionable. With social media being a big part of most teens’ lives and their brains not fully developing until they are 25, what they are exposed to on the internet may have a big influence on their decisions. Many of the “influencers” on apps like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and YouTube have done awful things.

Nineteen-year-old social media star Zoe Laverne has grown a large following within the past couple of years. Recently, people have begun to question why she is still allowed a platform after the information that has come out regarding her. Last year, it was revealed that she was having an inappropriate relationship with a minor. 

She claimed, “Y’all are just mad that the situation wasn’t as worse as people made it out to be.” 

Since this incident, she claims she “has no connection with the minor” and continues to post online like nothing ever happened. Also, her ex-boyfriend, Cody Orlove, spoke about how Laverne was sexually harassing him while drunk. He confronted her about it, but she dismissed the whole scenario, saying, “it’s stupid.” 

YouTuber Trisha Paytas (they/them) has done many questionable things for the past couple of years, including having appropriated many different cultures and said racist things. A year ago, they diagnosed themself with dissociative identity disorder. Instead of receiving treatment for it, they decided to spread lies. They posted a TikTok mocking Egyptian culture, did blackface, made antisemetic remarks, said racial slurs and many other things.

Tana Mongeau is another influencer that shouldn’t have a following for many different reasons. She has failed to follow COVID-19 restrictions and publicly posted about it when she has a young fanbase that could follow in her footsteps. She and another YouTuber named Channon Rose filmed a dead body. She handled the situation immaturely by deciding to film the body for her “storytime” about it. Several of her racist tweets were leaked years ago and though she apologized for her actions, she has again been called out for being extremely disrespectful to people of color. 

The Lopez brothers are two siblings that got famous from their dancing videos on TikTok. Both brothers have been caught having unsuitable relationships with minors. Multiple girls have come forward with their stories, but both brothers still post on their social media accounts. One of the brothers, Tony, got his old tweets released, and in those posts he said sexist, homophobic and racist things, which he responded to with a half-hearted apology on a live-stream.

Allowing creators like these to have a following is extremely offensive and gives their young supporters the wrong ideas.