There's nothing like a day at the beach. You can even add a dose of productivity — and environmental friendliness — to your rest and relaxation by picking up beach trash.
Just make sure it's actually trash, and don't do it for the 'Gram.
On July 4, TikToker TheSocialJoker (@thesocialjoker) reposted a video from a friend's private Instagram story that seemingly showed an influencer pretending to pick up trash from Pererenan Beach in Bali, Indonesia, as they were being recorded.
The comments on the video turned to controversy involving death threats, mistaken identity perpetrated by an internet mob, and multiple clarifications.
The next day, the poster called the actions of the ostensible influencer duo "unjust, wrong, and immoral" but also had to ask people not to engage in online harassment.
@thesocialjoker FOR THOSE WHO ASKED HERE IT IS AGAIN #beachcleanup #environmentalist #environment #influencers #fakeinfluencers #fyp #cleanup #bebetter #educatedonthate ♬ original sound - TheSocialJoker
"What these people did in the video is very wrong, and everyone has every right to be angry and outraged about it," the poster said. "But some of the comments that I've seen on the original post have been actually just as unhinged as well — threats of abuse held toward these women and people threatening to do unjust and unruly things upon them when they do find out who they are."
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"I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt," the poster continued, "and pray that they are just uneducated and unaware of the repercussions of their actions."
One TikToker commented, "You're right it's unacceptable and outrageous… they certainly need to be educated!"
Amid the frenzy, an Instagram user seemingly acknowledged they were the one in the video and said it was taken out of context.
The caption stated they collected "the garbage" — which appeared to be driftwood — for a video about negative thoughts and "also decided to clean the beach a bit with what I can do (I couldn't clean all but I could do a bit of a good thing)."
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They then deposited the bags on the road "where it can be easily picked up by the service (as no containers were there)."
So, first things first: Driftwood is not exactly trash. It can be removed from a beach but shouldn't be placed in a plastic garbage bag. Actual waste that is collected should be taken to a bin or otherwise properly discarded — because even trash from elsewhere ends up on beaches.
After the influencer's performance was over, someone could be heard saying the pair had abandoned the plastic.
"Hopefully we've all learned a little bit of something from this," TheSocialJoker said. "Clean up after yourself, first and foremost."
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