TikTok

What Happens When A Corporate TikTok Girlie Gets Laid Off? She Posts Through It.

This is an excerpt from BuzzFeed News' culture newsletter, Cleanse the Timeline! You can subscribe here.

Hi, and welcome to Like and Subscribe, Stephanie McNeal’s column about the accounts and trends she just can’t stop following on social media.

Before mid-January, TikToker Cedoni Francis's followers could expect a specific type of content. A self-described “#corporatebaddie” who used to work for Google, Francis attracted more than 230,000 followers with her videos about her daily life in New York City. 

She documented her morning routine before spending a day in her downtown office (subway, breakfast, stop for some people-watching), took viewers along as she hunted for a new apartment, and shared her experiences dating as a 24-year-old in the Big Apple.

But on Jan. 22, just three days after posting her latest “day in my life: office edition” video, Francis announced on her page that she had been laid off.

The layoffs, she said, affected her entire team, and she said had seen “the writing on the wall” for a while. However, she said she wasn’t angry or even that upset because she had “the privilege of knowing [she is] perfectly fine.”

The reason? Her TikTok account.

“My interests have started to align more with creative entrepreneurship than they did my traditional 9-to-5,” she said.

Francis is just one of many young people who have made a name for themselves on TikTok by sharing their lives as #corporatebaddies, #techgirls, or #techtokers, then found themselves impacted by the mass layoffs sweeping the tech industry. But rather than go dark, these entrepreneurial Gen Z’ers are posting through it and getting real.

Under hashtags like #techlayoffs, you can find videos with titles like “A day in my life getting laid off at Google.” This video, from creator @nicolesdailyvlog, starts off with a photo of an ominous text message from her boss, which read, “Hey Nicole, feel free to give me a call.” 

Nicole filmed herself running down the stairs once she learned of the layoffs and realized she couldn’t log into her email or calendar. She then filmed herself in tears. 

“The Google layoffs were not how I expected to start off 2023, but I know it’s only up from here,” she wrote in the caption.

For these creators, being candid about their job losses is likely cathartic, but it’s also an adept social strategy. Nicole’s video has nearly 5 million views, and other TikTokers have found similar success.

One creator, @rawantheplug, built her platform of 183,000 followers with videos like “free interview practice tools for girlies with anxiety” and “employer red flags.”

In November, Rawan announced to her followers that she had been one of the thousands of people laid off from Meta. A few weeks later, she had another announcement: She was going to Africa!

“If you got laid off, this is your sign to go on that trip!!!” she wrote. Her comments filled up with other laid-off techies, who said they appreciated the push to take some time for themselves. 

In building these platforms while simultaneously working their 9-to-5s, these creators were putting into practice a hard reality: Your employer won’t love you back, so have a Plan B. 

As for Francis, she seems to be doing just fine. This week, she shared a video from New York Fashion Week and another video titled “what I spend in a day as a laid-off former tech baddie in nyc.”

“TW: woman enjoying life,” she wrote. ●

Libs Of TikTok Founder Fires Back At AOC After Mention During House Censorship Hearing

The founder of Libs of TikTok" responded Friday to criticisms from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez during this week's House hearing on censorship that featured former Twitter executive Yoel Roth, among other witnesses.

Ocasio-Cortez used the hearing to attack the popular Twitter account. She particularly went after Libs of TikTok for sharing videos regarding Boston Children’s Hospital's gender transition procedures for minors.

Ocasio-Cortez asked Roth about posts from Libs of TikTok – which is run by Chaya Raichik – including one featuring a purported medical expert from a children's hospital discussing transgender surgery for minors. She focused on a post that included the discussion about "gender-affirming hysterectomies" and "top surgery," or mastectomies.

"Are you aware from — that from August 11th to August 16th that account posted false information about Boston Children’s Hospital claiming that they were providing hysterectomies to children?" she asked Roth.

FORMER TWITTER SAFETY CHIEF: 'REGRETTABLY' LIBS OF TIKTOK ACCOUNT REMAINS ON PLATFORM

"Yes, I am aware of that and other claims from the account," the former Twitter Head of Trust and Safety responded.

After AOC deemed that Libs of TikTok posted a "lie" that was "circulated by other prominent far-right influencers," she  said the information led to "real life harassment and ultimately a bomb threat" to Boston Children's Hospital.

On "Tucker Carlson Tonight," host Tucker Carlson cited Roth, whom he dubbed the social media platforms onetime "chief censor," and noted Raichik does not engage in commentary on her account, but only re-posts liberals in their own words, which often ignites scorn directed at them.

"I believe that AOC and Yoel Roth were mad that people were able to see the truth," she said.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

"It's very concerning that they're more upset about people knowing that these surgeries are happening to children than the fact that these children are getting these surgeries," Raichik added. "I mean, children are being sterilized and mutilated across the country in a lot of hospitals, and they're just more mad that we know about it."

Carlson noted one of the media posted by Raichik on the subject came from Boston Children's Hospital, which applauded itself on its website as being the "first pediatric and adolescent transgender health program in the United States."

The Gender Multispecialty Service (GeMS) at Boston Children's has cared for more than 1,000 families to date," the hospital said.

However, the hospital also denied, in another section of its website, that it engages in gender-affirming hysterectomies on minors.

MSNBC GUEST ACCUSED MUSK AND LIBS OF TIKTOK OF PROMOTING ‘STOCHASTIC TERRORISM’ ON TWITTER

"Gender-affirming hysterectomies (including ovarian-sparing hysterectomies and hysterectomies done in coordination with phalloplasty [and] metoidioplasty).

"We only perform gender-affirming hysterectomies on patients who are age 18 or older," it added in bold type.

Raichik said the entire hearing displayed "very concerning" assertions about government officials she said were working with the FBI and Big Tech to censor those who "dared speak the truth."

"And the truth is that the truth is not hateful or harmful or dangerous like they claim," she said. "[Critics] like to label me a terrorist. It's just the truth is inconvenient to them, and that's why they want to silence it."

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"If me posting a publicly available video from Boston Children's Hospital [leads me to be] responsible somehow for a bomb threat, then [Ocasio-Cortez] criticizing me on the House floor would make her responsible for all the death threats that I receive. Right?" Raichik added.

"I mean, it has to go both ways, but it obviously doesn't. And it only goes one way. And I receive a lot of death threats. I've had people showing up to my home and no, I do not get bodyguards paid for by the government."

Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital. 

He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant. 

Charles covers media, politics and breaking news, and has covered the annual CPAC conference for Fox News Digital.

Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. In Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.Creitz@fox.Com.

TikTok Creator Goes Viral After Documenting Romantic Getaway With Ex-boyfriend In Real-time

(iStock)

A TikTok content creator who split up with her boyfriend of three years just days before they were due to film a romantic getaway for TikTok, went viral on the platform as she documented the aftermath of their break-up in real-time.

24-year-old Cassidy Joy Watson, who went by the username @caesthetically, had signed a contract with her then-boyfriend to go on a romantic holiday to Hawaii, where they would record promotional content for their social media channels.

Explaining how she dealt with the situation, Watson posted a video to TikTok caption: “When you and your boyfriend of three years break up but you already signed a contract to create content at a resort together,” which was paired with a sped-up version of SZA’s song “Kill Bill.”

Watson, a TikTok creator who had about 380,000 followers at the time, went viral on the platform, after receiving more than 5.8 million views.

The content creator told Insider that “people love to see people in love”, but making your relationship publicly available puts “a lot of eyes” on it, and that attention comes with pitfalls, she revealed.

After Watson shared details of her breakup, she found that people were hooked on her story. She started sharing real-time updates on the situation with her followers, as she and her ex-boyfriend decided to go on the holiday anyway.

In one now-deleted video, Insider reports she said in a voiceover: “Unlike my ex, the hotel really went out of their way to make me feel special … the best part of this trip was definitely the breakfast at their coconut Club Lounge. They had delicious food and, much like the turn my relationship took, a full 180-degree view of Waikiki.”

“I spent most of this vacation just taking in these breathtaking views and exercising self-control,” she reportedly said.

Watson told the publication she wanted to give a “raw” explanation of the breakup, unlike other influencer couples who she says don’t share the “messy” parts of their relationships on social media.

“All the cute stuff that you see in videos, they’re really just snippets of our relationship, and, at the end of the day, we’re both adults and we’re communicative with each other, and I don’t mind sharing the messy parts of my life online too,” Watson said.

The content creator has now deactivated her TikTok account, but stitches and screen recordings of her viral breakup explanation remain on the platform.