A story about a deadly TikTok boat jumping challenge went viral. Then it fell apart
As the July 4 holiday approached, a local Alabama news report warned of a deadly TikTok challenge that involved jumping from a speeding boat.
“In the past six months, we’ve had four drownings that were easily avoidable,” said Jim Dennis, captain of the Childersburg Rescue Team. told the local ABC affiliate station in Birmingham, Alabama, in a story that aired July 3. “They were doing a TikTok challenge.”
National and international news outlets picked up on the report and warned of the trend. But Alabama’s main public safety agency says that while there have been fatalities this year, no such deaths have been reported. A spokesperson for TikTok also says that no boat jumping challenge is popular on its platform.
Here’s a closer look at the facts.
CLAIM: Four people who attempted a viral TikTok challenge recently died when they jumped off moving boats in Alabama.
THE FACTS: The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, which oversees the state’s public safety agencies, tweeted on Monday to dispel the viral rumours.
The agency said the Marine Patrol Division “had no data on boat or marine deaths that could be directly related to TikTok or a trend on TikTok.”
It noted that one person was fatally injured after jumping from a moving boat in 2020 and a similar case occurred in 2021, but that neither death was related to TikTok.
In a follow-up email to The Associated Press, the agency provided details of six naval patrols investigated so far this year. None of the incident reports mention TikTok or any such challenge.
For example, on July 8, a 79-year-old man drowned after falling off his boat without a life jacket while fishing on a river at night. A day earlier, a 65-year-old man drowned after getting off a pontoon boat to help a dog in a lake.
The other fatalities included a 19-year-old who crashed his jet ski into a tree in May and a man who apparently drowned in January after the ship he was on hit a bridge and capsized.
People magazine, the New York Post and a number of other major outlets that initially reported on the TikTok challenge deaths have since updated their stories with the state’s response.
But social media users, in English and Spanish, still share the claims as accurate. Some even contain videos claiming to show the victims.
“Police say at least four people died during TikTok boat jumping challenge,” one Twitter user wrote in a widely shared post that included several video clips of people diving from moving boats. “When they jumped out of the boat, they literally broke their necks… killed instantly.”
Meanwhile, Dennis, the local first responder quoted in the original story, backtracked on his comments after state officials weighed in this week.
He told ALREADY. comanother local news outlet in Alabama said his comments during an interview about boat safety were taken out of context, but he claimed his organization has responded to reports of people jumping from boats this year.
“It was blown out of proportion,” said Dennis, who did not respond to requests for additional comment this week.
The ABC branch in Birmingham also declined to comment, but in a story Monday about the state’s response, the station took Dennis’ full, unedited interview.
Ben Rathe, a spokesman for TikTok, stressed that “boat jumping” has never been a trend on the platform, echoing a statement from the company’s Mexico City office formerly in Spanish.
TikTok also said it doesn’t comment on things that are “not part of (of the platform) / not trending on the platform”.
Like other social media companies, TikTok has seen a number of “challenges” go viral over the years, from the possibledangerous And destructive to the downright criminal And deadly.
Elizabeth Losh, a professor of American Studies at William & Mary, a university in Williamsburg, Virginia, who has studied TikTok trends, confirmed that there are some posts visible on the site showing people jumping off boats, including one from 2019 with the hashtag # boatjumpchallenge. — but don’t appear to be particularly viral or widespread.
She also noted that TikTok has placed warning labels on some posts.
The social network’s Community Guidelines prohibit users from ” dangerous activities and challenges”, which includes “challenges, games, tricks, inappropriate use of dangerous tools, eating substances harmful to one’s health, or similar activities that could result in significant bodily harm.”
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Ramirez reported from Mexico City. Associated Press reporter Karena Phan in Los Angeles also contributed to this story.
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This is part of AP’s efforts to address widespread disinformation, including working with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content circulating online. Read more about fact-checking at AP.
