In the age of social media, it’s easy to get lost and fall behind when it comes to jokes, memes and trends — particularly when those trends are all within your own fanbase and happen at lightspeed.
Such an instance occurred for TikTok star Avani Gregg on August 25. The drama began after one of her fans called out the influencer for appearing to play favorites among her viewerbase in a bitter tweet.
“Hi, so me and thousands of your fans are upset with you,” the viewer wrote. “It’s okay that you like her, but some times you don’t even pay attention to other fans. That makes us very sad and unmotivated. There are other people besides her.”
Gregg’s fanbase quickly made a meme out of the fan’s comment, filling up the TikToker’s replies with the copy/pasted message. Gregg herself even got in on the trend — although, as it all happened so quickly and she didn’t see the original tweet, she didn’t actually know what it was all about.
Shortly thereafter, the fan who had originally posted the comment began to receive death threats and other hurtful messages, leading some viewers to lash out at Gregg for reposting the meme.
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“Y’ALL ACT LIKE I KNOW WTF IS GOING ON,” Gregg hit back at critics. “I thought it was a joke toward Amelie, not towards that girl. NOW I’M GETTING BLAMED? How tf was I supposed to know when I didn’t see the original tweet?”
“Y’all need to stop,” she continued. “If it’s getting out of hand, I’ll stop commenting, following and replying to you guys because honestly, I’ve had enough. Learn to love each other and be happy for each other.”
i don’t enjoy people feeling like this so i may just unfollow everyone one here for a lil i’m sorry
— avani dicaprio (1990s edition) (@lilpapivoni) August 26, 2020
Gregg even threatened to unfollow everyone on social media for a short time in response to the fiasco — a scandal that blew up in everyone’s faces within a 24 hour period, showcasing the danger of miscommunication and the speed at which harmless memes can turn into serious online harassment.