What initially seems like fun can sometimes quickly turn into bullying.Bild: yay images / imago images
Digital
Tiktok regularly produces trends that are entertaining, absurd or rather questionable. There are currently videos making the rounds on the social media app that most users find anything but funny.
16.11.2025, 08:0716.11.2025, 08:07
Some Tiktok trends only turn out to be problematic long after they have been circulating through all the feeds. Others only work because they provoke negative reactions across the board. Ultimately, the algorithm doesn’t care about the tone of voice – whether it’s approval or outrage, the only thing that matters is that there is a comment.
The “flip the camera” trend is probably exactly such a case. The principle of the videos is pretty simple: a group of young people usually ask strangers on the street to film them dancing. During the dance performance, however, they approach the uninvolved person and tap on the cell phone screen so that the camera changes (“flip the camera”).
In this way, the stranger is filmed, who usually reacts with surprise, irritation or embarrassment. It is not clear from most videos who the people holding the cell phones are. Some of them are school children who are probably the same age as the people dancing. There are also clips on Tiktok in which apparently homeless people are standing behind the cell phone camera.
The interaction doesn’t seem to be on an equal footing. Often, people participating in the trend grab their nose with one hand while dancing and wiggle the other toward the camera. That seems pretty condescending and that’s one reason why the trend isn’t doing well online at all.
Sharp criticism of the “flip the camera” trend
“The ‘Flip the Camera’ trend has become openly bullying, and yet many people act as if it was just harmless fun,” writes one user in an Instagram post. A person’s face is captured at the worst possible angle in order to laugh at it. The person goes on to write:
“Things like this may seem small, but they stick. They make people insecure, they make people hate the way they look, they make them feel like they’re not good enough. We shouldn’t build a trend around putting someone else down.”
Many people in the comment column agree with this statement. “Do people not think about their actions anymore? That makes me so angry,” someone wrote. Another says: “That’s really so nasty. What do you get out of being so mean to other people?”
Many users on Tiktok also speak out against the trend. Creator Natalie Reynolds recently shared a video with her more than three million followers that initially looks like she’s joining in on the trend.
But then she starts screaming: “You really thought I was flipping the camera? That’s not a trend, that’s bullying. If you have to embarrass someone else for entertainment purposes, that’s really abysmal.” The Tikoker woman received a lot of support for this statement: over 3.5 million users liked the video.
And in the comments section, many people are shocked at how disrespectful the other video creators are behaving. Some point out that in most cases the people who kindly agreed to hold the cell phone did not consent to being filmed at all. And many people probably won’t be happy about the fact that her face ends up going viral and that even more people might make fun of her irritated facial expression.
“We can decide to do better,” the aforementioned Instagram user concludes in his post. He continues: “We can choose not to spread additional negativity or make people feel ashamed of themselves. Social media doesn’t have to be a place where people are laughed at – it can be a place where we truly respect each other.”
