A poster in British Columbia falsely claimed his friend was diagnosed with coronavirus. Naturally, the video has blown up.
Teens are pretending to have coronavirus for likes—and they’re succeeding.
A teenager in Vancouver, Canada, on Tuesday posted a Tik Tok video of a boy wearing a breathing mask and hoodie in a school lunch room and coughing into trash cans in a hallway. The person behind the video is shown dialing 9-1-1, though it’s unclear if he actually does so. Then, a screenshot of a news article appears: “First presumptive case of coronavirus confirmed in B.C.”
“Our friend was being monitored for Coronavirus,” the clip reads. “He had to call 911 if he started coughing violently. Turns out he had it [grimacing emoji].”
Coronavirus is breeding more substantial misinformation on TikTok as well: videos pushing conspiracy theories about the Chinese government and other entities have accrued thousands of likes, according to Deseret News, though none as many as the Canadian hoax.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/teens-are-now-claiming-they-have-coronavirus-for-tik-tok-clout