An 18 -year -old girl is talking after she says she was secretly filmed in a shopping center in London, Ontario, and the exchange was published on the social networks of a man whose viral videos apparently celebrate men who reject women.
The woman said she was eating a pretzel in a bank and was alone when two men approached her if she had a boyfriend. She said she told them yes, to which one of the men said: “‘That is surprising,'” then quickly moved away.
A few hours later, he said, he saw a video of his eight -second interaction on social networks. She said her initial reaction was shock, partly because she didn’t realize that she was being filmed.
“I was talking on the phone with my mother telling her what happened when my boyfriend sent me. His friends saw him in Tiktok and sent him,” said the woman. “They sent me the video probably a week immediately after that.”
CBC News has agreed not to identify it to protect it from greater online scrutiny.
More than five million people saw this particular video on Tiktok. Thousands left comments, including many supporting the alleged effort to humiliate these 304 “, jargon for promiscuous women.
Other comments referred to the poster as “King” and thanked him for his efforts.
“He was frustrated and out of the ordinary for all comments,” said the 18 -year -old. “Many people were inciting it and saying: ‘Yes, he continues to humiliate these girls’ or ‘This is great, he continues with good work.'”
She said she wanted to talk about what happened to her because she worries that young people can be influenced by what they see online and will see what happened to her as acceptable behavior.
“It is disturbing to know the number of children who are learning this mentality, especially with the new generation so online.”
Dozens of videos published in the same account that show other young women in the mall that are taken by surprise when asked about their relationship status. They make fun when they respond.
The account holder, @fiiIVestar, has not responded to multiple requests for comments from CBC News, and since then the account has been eliminated.
It allows this form of misogyny that I think is really bubbling in society.– Kaitlynn Mendes, Western University, Canada President of Research in Inequality and Gender
The women who approach men in public and who feel uncomfortable are not new, said Kaitlynn Mendes, associate professor of Sociology and President of Research from Canada in inequality and gender in the Western University.
But when the exchange is filmed, with the potential to finish online, said Mendes, women can feel limited in how they can respond.
“You can see how deeply uncomfortable many of the women are seen, and I think there is definitely socialization in terms of what women can say,” he said, added that some women will fear that they are violently or verbal harassment if they retire.
Mendes pointed out the comments, calling them “unpleasant” and said they would not make anyone feel good.
“It allows this form of misogyny that I think is really bubbling in society. For what potentially gives this really negative exit aimed at women.”
Legal arguments about online publication
However unpleasant, filming people in public is not necessarily illegal, said Toronto’s lawyer Maanit Zemel.
She said women in these videos could sue for the invasion of privacy in the civil court, but the case would be a challenge to prove.
“She does not necessarily have a reasonable privacy expectation because she is in the mall,” Zemel said. “But because it does not have the knowledge that it is being registered, there is the possibility of arguing that there may be some form of privacy invasion.”
Zemel said that women could also try to sue for being advertised and placed in false light, which is when true information is published in a way that makes the issue look bad, ashamed or another of what they really are.
“In this case, it would be that this person is, possibly, falsely not datable,” he said, adding the comments in the video could help try the case.
“If you are publishing and people are making comments that are humiliating or shameful for it, and speaking of their physical attributes … create a situation in which people are, in combination, placing it in a false light.”
Other women who saw the videos said they caused conversations about leaving alone, even to a shopping center.
“I think many girls are already aware of themselves, so if someone occurs to you [like the creator of the video]That is just strengthening their insecurities, “News Caitlin Rastohotte, a student at Western University, told CBC.
