TikTokers Are Accused of Starting Forest Fires For Views (vice.com) 68
An anonymous reader shares a report: Humaira Asghar, known as "Dolly" to her 11.5 million TikTok fans, faces charges for allegedly setting a forest fire while shooting a TikTok video in Pakistan's capital city Islamabad. In the 11-second clip that has since been taken down, Asghar dramatically walks down a forested hill covered in flames in slow motion with a trending pop song that mentions "setting fire" playing in the background. The caption posted with the video shot in the Margalla Hills National Park reads, "fire erupts wherever I am." Asghar is not the only Pakistani TikToker who has been accused of setting a forest fire for views. Officials say it is an emerging trend in a country that is suffering from a record-breaking heatwave.
"Young people desperate for followers are setting fire to our forests during this hot and dry season," tweeted Islamabad Wildlife Management Board chairperson Rina S Khan Satti. "These psychotic young people have to be caught and put behind bars immediately." Earlier this month, a man in Abbottabad city was arrested for intentionally starting a forest fire to use as a backdrop in his video. In another recently released video, two men are seen appearing to start a forest fire then running away from it while music plays in the background.
"Young people desperate for followers are setting fire to our forests during this hot and dry season," tweeted Islamabad Wildlife Management Board chairperson Rina S Khan Satti. "These psychotic young people have to be caught and put behind bars immediately." Earlier this month, a man in Abbottabad city was arrested for intentionally starting a forest fire to use as a backdrop in his video. In another recently released video, two men are seen appearing to start a forest fire then running away from it while music plays in the background.
TikTok was a mistake (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: TikTok was a mistake (Score:2)
Children are the problem. Prove me wrong.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
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Poor parenting is the problem.
This. Only rich people should have kids.
Re: TikTok was a mistake (Score:3)
Rich parenting isn't any better
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If only rich people had kids, who would the rich people exploit for their labor to sustain their riches, and staff their mansions?
Less rich people -- the club has many membership / privilege levels...
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who would the rich people exploit for their labor to sustain their riches?
Robots. The poor are superfluous.
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Some of the biggest assholes I have ever met have rich parents
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See: Boomers
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Uh yeah, about that [motleyhealth.com]
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Boomers (Score:1)
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Children are the problem. Prove me wrong.
But, "children are our future!"
[oh... crap]
Re:TikTok was a mistake (Score:5, Insightful)
We had these when I was growing up. They're just called idiots. They have idiots for the internet now?
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Idiots 2.0 and (soon) idiots 3.0!
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Problem is, when we were growing up, at most you were competing with the kids in the neighbourhood to show you are cool / popular / etc. So any stupidity you did, was localised, as in most of the world will not know about it, and you will not tend to go overboard as much (hey small number of competitors after all).And your parents will know of any craziness very soon.
Now you are potentially competing with everyone else in the internet. Some of whom are rich(and so able to show off with expensive crap), some
First thing I've agreed with Pakistan on. (Score:5, Insightful)
"These psychotic young people have to be caught and put behind bars immediately."
If you crash your airplane into forests, destroy public or private property for views or likes then you need to be locked up.
Re:First thing I've agreed with Pakistan on. (Score:4, Insightful)
Except I'd replace psychotic with psychopathic since they clearly don't a shit about anyone or anything except themselves.
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Yes, people with psychosis at least have the excuse of being genuinely ill.
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Sounds psychotic to me.
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An old Far Side comic comes to mind - a bunch of obvious idiots in a room, with a group of scientists looking in. The caption:
"Of course they're fools, gentlemen. The question is, what kind of fools are they?"
As the internet lets new breeds of fool rise to prominence, it's useful to label them so that the rest of us can deal with them more effectively.
Stupid is stupid. Nothing special about TikTok (Score:4, Insightful)
Some people have zero understanding for the consequences of their actions or the risks they are taking. Not new, not special, not TikTok. After they have lost a limb or spent a few years behind bars, _some_ of them realize how things actually works, but for many even that is not enough. This is not a problem of education or society, but there is something fundamentally broken in these people when it comes to seeing reality. Not that they are the only group with this problem.
Re:Stupid is stupid. Nothing special about TikTok (Score:5, Insightful)
They're narcissistic psychopaths - all that matters is them. The serious consequences of a forest fire to either people, property, animals or the enviroment is simply of no concern to them.
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Well, some sure are. Others may just not understand what their actions actually may do. Humans are endlessly diverse in how they are dysfunctional.
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Well, some sure are.
Are you referring to the newest users of the platform at a given moment as the exceptions there?
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Wait, don't tell me, let me guess..."Dolly" is an environmental activist who was there to hug trees in a new ritualistic way, firing up those cameras to shoot a video titled Love thy Planet, right?
Why am I willing to bet even the psychopaths out there would prefer we all simply agree on a legal cutoff for the criminally stupid already. The Darwin Awards could be a category in the Summer and Winter Olympics by...tomorrow.
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The term you're looking for is "Attention whore".
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And the solution is that, should it be proven that she did actually start the fire, to be banned for life from holding any social media accounts. No tiktok, no youtube, no facebook page, no opportunity to garner likes or views ever again.
Same thing should happen to that guy who crashed his plane so he could livestream his "emergency bailout" - his live-streaming channels should be all be deleted and he should be banned from opening new ones.
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That would require central identity and access management. The Internet does not have one of those.
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No, actually, it wouldn't. Her violating the terms of her sentence could be punished if it got reported through any random channel, which it probably would if she were even slightly successful in building a new following.
Policing does not actually require a police state.
Not that I'm saying that's an appropriate or adequate sentence. Just trying to counteract your authoritarian propaganda.
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Exactly. There's a number of crimes for which punishment may involve being banned from internet access. That doesn't require a police state to ensure that no ISPs, libraries, etc. provide them with access, any more than having your driver's license revoked requires that all cars have license-scanners installed to ensure no unlicensed drivers can ever drive.
The punishment is specific to the criminal and it's on them to obey it. If they're ever caught in violation the judge is likely to assume it's just th
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All of the major social media companies have a list of banned users, and they also all have automated processes to identify if people are trying to evade the block list.
The court just needs to instruct each of the social media companies that need to be disallowed, to add this user to their banned list, and the social media company then enforces the ban list.
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Well, the idea of "15 minutes of fame" for everybody is really a lot older. TikTok just makes the fame easier to get. So TikTok is an accelerant, but it is not a root-cause.
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Well, the idea of "15 minutes of fame" for everybody is really a lot older. TikTok just makes the fame easier to get. So TikTok is an accelerant, but it is not a root-cause.
It's not about "15 minutes of fame," it's about destroying the ability to focus, to the point people have (at best) 15 second attention spans. It warps what criteria people like/dislike things by based on that rapid dopamine/cortisol inducement to the point that they develop mental ticks. It is a technology which causes brain disorders.
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The difference is, these people now have millions of fans to encourage them.
To Jail! Right Now! Today! (Score:2)
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That reminds me, Andy Dick just got arrested again [upi.com] while living in an RV with a bunch of YouTubers who do live stream daily at a County Park.
Yeah, straight to jail!
evidence? (Score:4, Informative)
I am no fan of TikTok or the current generation of kids, but where is the proof that this kid actually set the fire for this purpose? The summary doesn't even show any links/evidence other than the fact she was in the area and filmed herself with a song that references fire.. do people not understand that this a common thing people do? they pick songs that fit the scenario they are in.. again, not defending this kid because I don't know the whole story, but the summary shows exactly zero connection other than being in the area..
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We don't really have enough information regarding this, but if shes was the only person or practically the only person in the area, that video sure isn't helping her innocent stance.
Maybe the fire spontaneously ignited with no help from anyone. I think that can happen under certain conditions, but I'm sure after an arson investigates the situation and finds it must of been human started and gee, their were only these many people in the this area...
She very well could of been the only person at the right tim
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Good point. I hope it's just a tasteless video (akin to the one made by the girl who took selfies at Auschwitz Birkenau a few years back...), that the kid will get scolded, and will learn to think about the message she's conveying before posting her stuff online. But then, we also have the example of a guy who intentionally crashed his own plane for views. So, well...
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I suspect a lot of this hinges on whether or not she called emergency services to report the fire. That would be the first reaction of someone who randomly encounters a fire. While someone who starts a fire may be r
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She also says the fire in her video was about an hour away from the fire she's being accused of starting.
Hmm. That makes things rather hard to gauge. It may be she is completely innocent. It may be she is an arsonist.
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Umm, forest fires leave *extremely* obvious evidence, while SFX leaves none whatsoever. Not exactly something anyone is likely to get confused over. As a rule the authorities don't care about online videos unless they're evidence related to real-world crimes they're already investigating. (Barring defamation and indecency, where the video itself may be the crime)
the cult of the self (Score:4, Insightful)
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Umm, not that I disagree with your judgment of failure, but the failure is much deeper than modern society. Self-image and self-adulation have been guiding principles for the leaders of society long before corporations or the media existed, extending back at least as far as civilization itself. Most of the great architectural achievements and other wonders of the world are the result of immensely expensive acts of self-promotion by individual kings or religious organizations.
And that self-promotion has ex
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the entire point of a lawn is to show off the amount of land and labor you can waste to grow completely useless vegetation
It's to keep the HOA off my ass.
My "lawn" is pretty weedy. But when the neighbors make any remarks, I tell them it's not weeds. It's an experiment in biodiversity. I don't know how long that excuse will last.
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I'll agree on gratification: Consumerism demands a 'buy now' mentality. But the 'get a job' mentality is still spouted by moralizing wannabes, despite reality being different: Most children can't inherit a job, have to buy their own job-training, and even university isn't a guaranteed head-start in life. It's no surprise that direct-marketing (pyramid schemes), masturbation videos, and influencer videos are growth industries.
Wrong again, it's a fine line between self-driven and excess: The difference t
Race to the bottom (Score:1)
Why does each new "in" social media site make people even stupider than the last? Imagine if each generation of politician got stupider ... oh, um...
This is why we can't have nice things (Score:2)
Like trees. Or a civilization.
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Like trees. Or a civilization.
Or a Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, after a local man (Herostratus) burnt it for fame.
TikTokers, I introduce you to Green Screens (Score:3)
Can't wait for the trial ... (Score:2)
Defense Exhibit #1: A TikTok of the defendants walking in slow-motion to the tune We Didn't Start the Fire [wikipedia.org] ...
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Anybody seen the TikTok in action in China? (Score:2)
You cannot prevent forest fires (Score:1)
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Rake the forest.
- Donald Trump
I can't bvelieve how far this got (Score:2)
Some woman took a selfie in front of a fire that was already raging. That's it. That's where this should have ended.
Instead, false accusations of arson going all over the Internet. It was on reddit yesterday and even though one of the comments debunked it, most of the top comments had the knives out.
People really need to get more savvy. Sheesh!
This proves that Tiktokers,Instagramers,Youtubers, (Score:2)