Unitymafia and Deejthedad TikTok Dating Drama

Submission 279

Part of a series on Online Dating. [View Related Entries]

Overview

Unitymafia and Deejthedad TikTok Dating Drama refers to an online squabble between Mormon TikTokers @unitymafia (Bre Powers) and @deejthedad (DJ) that garnered virality in mid-September 2024. Powers posted a viral video on TikTok berating DJ, seen wearing a military uniform, while he was getting into his car, leaving a "failed appointment," according to Powers, who also called him an "ugly fuck." DJ posted a response "Story Time" video that further explained the situation, saying that he met Powers on the Mormon dating app Mutual and saw that she seemingly accidentally had her phone number in one of her pictures. He said that he messaged her on the number to inform her and also organized a teeth whitening appointment in order to meet her. She sent him reply messages that seemed bot-like but the two eventually met, resulting in her viral TikTok. After getting both sides of the story, internet users picked sides with many supporting DJ in the drama. DJ's video was also reposted to Twitter / X, where more discourse ensued about "dating in 2024," with many siding with DJ.

Background

On September 16th, 2024, TikToker^[1] @unitymafia (aka Bre Powers) posted a video of her arguing with a man wearing U.S. Army ACUs (Army Combat Uniform) getting into his car. She wrote, "This 'LDS' Christian man booked with me on a Sunday for an appointment just to waist my time." In the video, she notably called the man an "ugly fuck." In a day, the video received over 1.1 million plays and 11,200 likes (shown below).

Later on September 16th, TikToker^[2] @deejthedad posted a video "Story Time" in which he revealed himself as the military man in @unitymafia's video. He started by saying, "So, I'm done dating," and further explained that he met @unitymafia on the Mormon dating app Mutual. He saw that she seemingly accidentally had her phone number in one of her pictures. He said that he messaged her on the number to inform her and also organized a teeth whitening appointment in order to meet her. She sent him reply messages that seemed bot-like but the two eventually met, resulting in her viral video. In a day, his video received over 5.2 million plays and 354,500 likes (shown below).

Online Reactions

On September 16th, 2024, X^[3] user @Mappy6984 reposted @deejthedad's video, captioning it, "Dating in 2024. DON'T DO IT," gaining over 14.9 million views and 72,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Similarly, on TikTok, users believed that @unitymafia was unwell. For instance, on September 17th, 2024, TikToker^[4] @unitymafia posted a reply video to a comment asking, "Girl, are you okay? If people in your real life know you I hope they see this and intervene." @unitymafia replied, "Honestly, no. I'm not okay." The video gained over 390,400 plays and 1,000 likes in less than a day (shown below).

A minor thread was also started on the subreddit /r/UtahInfluencerDrama by Redditor^[5] QuicklyThisWay on September 16th.