Perez Hilton vs. TikTok Community

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Overview

Perez Hilton vs. TikTok Community refers to a feud between long-time Gossip reporter Perez Hilton and TikTokers due to Hilton's comments on TikTok posts, most notably Charli D'Amelio's posts, and video content which many TikTokers deem inappropriate due to his age. The feud led to a Change.org petition calling for TikTok to permanently ban Perez Hilton in April 2020.

Background

On December 21st, 2019, Perez Hilton began uploading videos about Charli D'Amelio. His first video on the subject discussed her relationship with Lil Huddy (shown below, left). The video received over 10,200 likes in four months. On December 28th, Perez Hilton uploaded a video saying that he was "over" Hype House content (shown below, right). The video gained over 500 likes in four months. His disfavor within the TikTok community grew, however, when he commented on a video of Charli D'Amelio dancing in a swimsuit on March 3rd, 2020 and said it was inappropriate.^[1]

Developments

On March 4th, 2020, Charli D'Amelio^[2] tweeted, "i will continue to post when i feel happy and confident so if me wearing a swimsuit at the beach is a problem well sucks to suck doesn’t it" (shown below, left). The tweet garnered over 83,000 likes and 3,000 retweets in a month. The next day, Twitter user @playbcybabe^[3] posted a screenshot of Hilton's comments with the caption, "perez hilton literally shamed @charlidamelio (15) for wearing a bathing suit. charli was literally at the beach. his excuse for this behavior was that he’s gay. but no matter who you are, attempting to diss a minor for what they’re wearing is not right" (shown below, right).

On March 7th, Perez Hilton responded to the controversy with a video exposing D'Amelio's father of driving drunk (shown below). The video received over 13,200 likes in a month.

On April 14th, Twitter user @emamma_mia, tweeted a thread describing Perez Hilton's inappropriate behavior on the app. They tweeted, "i know that there’s a lot going on rn but perez hilton has joined an app for teens and is actively harrassing and stalking them and nobody is doing anything about it!!!!" and continued "He’s been obsessively commenting and dueting 18 year old Quinn’s account to the point when Quinn had to block him (A 42 YEAR OLD MAN!)" (shown below).

On April 15th, Delara Panahi started a Change.org^[4] petition. The petition's description reads:
problematic and spreads negativity on the app, Tiktok. His whole career is based off of creating drama – which is something we seriously don't need right now. Perez is a middle-aged man and earns a living by attacking young kids for just having fun. CANCEL HIM, or at least BAN HIM from Tiktok. His videos are inappropriate and should be taken down, period.
The petition accumulated over 83,600 signatures in two weeks. On April 25th, TikTok influencer Avani^[5] tweeted that she signed the petition and garnered over 41,200 likes for the tweet. On April 27th, Perez Hilton responded in a TikTok video where he rejoiced for receiving so much attention (shown below). The video gained over 23,400 likes in two days. He tweeted that same day saying, "Mainstream outlet The Blast just wrote an article about my petition! Thank you, James Charles and Charli D’Amelio! LOVE IT!!!"^[6] Distractify^[7] and The Daily Dot^[8] both published articles on the feud.

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