I suppose sometimes that rage baiting is “effective” enough that even the social media platform itself gets mad. A TikTok content creator called Natalie Reynolds, who specializes in controversial pranks, has been the focus of the TikTok community that thinks she has to stop. And considering Reynolds almost pranked someone to their death, the outrage is, for once, justified.
TikTok can be used for good. Sometimes even chaotic good — like when someone outs a cheating husband to his wife of 17 years. But for Reynolds, the goal seems simple: Make content that provokes a reaction and, by extension, growth for her platform — which means more fame and more income.
At the height of her success, Indy100 reports Reynolds had amassed as many as 2.6 million followers. But apparently, her content was too potent even for TikTok, the same place where the most outrageous clips routinely sneak past the platform’s hawk-eyed moderators. Of course, the concept of a moderator these days is contentious in and of itself. Even Mark Zuckerberg said Meta (formerly Facebook), widely regarded as a family-friendly website, would be rolling back moderation.
Reynolds caught the wrath of social media with a particularly vile “prank” involving a homeless person. She found the woman near Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas, and for $20, dared her — despite not knowing how to swim — to jump in. Reynolds then posted the entire ordeal to her social media platforms.
— Mīkāʾīl (@Grey0973) May 31, 2024
Streamer Natalie Reynolds dares vulnerable woman who can't swim to jump into a lake and then runs away laughing while the woman yells for help. pic.twitter.com/ZOYpl5rFN9
Back to Reynolds: apparently, her original plan was to promise the homeless woman $20 and then dash off without actually paying once she jumped in. In the video, the woman can be heard screaming from the lake that she could only float, not swim. Reynolds then left the scene in tears, claiming the situation had spiraled. As she left, she passed by a fire truck rushing to save the woman.
Luckily, the woman was rescued in time.
Soon after, many creators on the platform banded together to campaign extensively to get her banned across social media platforms. A few months later, Reynolds was seen outside TikTok’s LA offices, reportedly crying in desperate urgency to get her account reinstated. There’s no clear word on why exactly it was suspended, though after her stunt, 14 straight days of the app’s users trending the tag “Natalie Reynolds Must Be Stopped” must have done its job.
TikTok sometimes operates like a global surveillance system. Sure, streaming platforms like Kick and Twitch technically expose the content creator for longer, but TikTok is unplanned chaos, with people oversharing the most random parts of their day. Sometimes, they even end up exposing vital parts of their jobs — like the airport store employee who casually showed her followers how to bypass security at LAX.
When Reynolds finally got her account back, she posted back-to-back videos insisting it wasn’t her behavior but her “jealous” competitors who were behind the short ban.
Reynolds’ message to her followers, however, was a bit too succinct — on her first post back, she simply asked, “Who’s happy I’m back?” Certainly not the subjects of her pranks. But clearly, TikTok thrives on such distasteful antics as despite the united front content creators presented in her opposition, Reynolds is back on the app, doing what she always does – rage bait.
